The bespoke Christmas gift guide

From cushions printed with your holiday snaps to unique canvas wall hangings, Kate Watson-Smyth selects the best personalised presents of the season

This Christmas it’s all about the personalised gift, so you need to be organised because they take a little more time than usual. This trend really took off last year, and now you can buy all manner of objects and items on which you can stick photographs of your beloved, your holidays snaps or even your own designs.

It all started back with fashion desinger Anya Hindmarch and her large canvas tote bags complete with image of baby or dog and has moved on from there. Now every gift website or store worth its personalised salt cellar has a section where you can add your name, or someone else’s, to a selection of off-the-shelf gifts and products.

Click here or on the image to launch the bespoke gift guide

James Rowe, of gadget and gift website Firebox, says: “Over the past few years we have noticed a really strong trend for personalised gifts. So we have expanded our range to cope with demand and sales have been really encouraging. One of the most popular lines has been My Monopoly, an official personalised spin-off of that old family favourite where players customise the board by adding in their own street names. We don’t really know why this should have taken off like this. Perhaps it’s something to do with putting a little more thought into your presents or it could just be that the technology has caught up and made their manufacture simpler.”

Here are just a few of the objects on offer, it’s up to you to decide if having your children steamed onto every available surface is a sign of great devotion or great lunacy. It used to be that a personalised number plate was just crass but clearly those times have changed – perhaps it’s only a matter of time before we’re all driving round with family photographs adorning ours headrests.