ALL WE WANT FOR XMAS IS…

You know if it's a choice between covering Christmas or New Year, that here in the fashion cupboard, we're always going to roll out in favour of Christmas. The one time of year at which it's perfectly legitimate to both shop ludicrously in quantity and kind, and to make obscene, materialistic demands on friends and relatives? Versus an overpriced winter night spent fenced inside a city centre, awash with flat beer, punctuated only by the wailings of Amy McDonald and Paolo Nutini? Forget it, son – no contest. And since we've succeeded in filling the rest of our fashion pages with a suitable orgy of shiny debauchery, we'll exit '08 with a modest, two-prong, give-and-receive list for the festive season.

The Selfish

We Want: A mini-break to Otsego, Minnesota

Why Otsego? Not because of its prime location on the 'Great River Road' in Wright County, where the Crow River joins the Mississippi. A logical assumption, but not the case. No, Otsego is our destination of choice due to its being home, we are told, to the largest SuperTarget store in all of those great fifty states. SuperTarget, being the supersized, bigger volume brother to normal Target, is, we figure, the best place to park ourselves come March '09. For why? Well, my uninitiated chums, on a date TBC in March '09, Target is set to receive delivery of a capsule, pocket-money-priced, diffusion collection by Alexander McQueen. McQ Alexander McQueen for Target, as it's wordily titled, is reported to be a collection filled with bubble dresses, denim jackets, and signature scarves, designed in mind of McQueen's muse, Leila Moss of the Duke Spirit. If we were lesser mortals, into 'I-told-you-so's, we'd remind you that we indicated many moons ago on these very pages that Ms Moss was a style icon worth channeling. But given that we're above all that, we'll give that a miss and rather spend our time fixated on thoughts of the clothes. And given that it isn't available here, you now have three months to: a) make friends with a lonely American who can negotiate both a shopping trolley and the US postal service; b) save up and sharpen your claws to fight it out on eBay; or c) arrange that mini-break to Otsego. You've been warned.

The Selfless

We'll be clicking the hell out of: etsy.com

In addition to being home to many of the wares of members of the Glasgow Craft Mafia (see article, right), etsy.com's store inventory is packed to the rafters full of oddball items fit for even the most awkward of recipients. Is your uncle a fly-fisherman who's into letter writing? Got a niece with a habit of wandering off in supermarkets who happens to be a Pokemon fan? With its thousands of specialty sellers, Etsy is surely the only place that offers the carp-emblazoned envelopes and personalized Pikachu name badge you've been looking for. Set up like an eBay for the handmade, Etsy leaves out the bidding wars and allows its mostly independent business-based sellers to sell their stock to an international audience at fair prices. Thus, an extraordinary range of unusual items, from jewellery to art prints, searchable by keyword and even colour, is at your fingertips. Given that the personalization option garners extra brownie points in the gift-giving stakes, and that the shopping process doesn't involve listening to Slade on a loop (unless your iTunes library is seriously lacking), we're going to be doing all the Xmas shopping we don't get done at the GCM markets right here. And if a few items with our own names on them should fall into our virtual trolley, is that really our fault? It's Christmas, after all, and that, my friends, is the beauty of the festive season. God bless us, everyone.