Shopping: Out With The Old, In With The New

WHEN YOU'VE got to Christmas Eve without so much as ripping the end off the Sellotape, let alone unzipping your wallet, it's time to reach for the chocolate. Get it right with James's handmade French chocolates, pounds 5.95 a box from Mortimer & Bennett, 33 Turnham Green Terrace, London W4 (0181-995 4145) ...

... or you could simply forget all about the chocolates and get a sweet tooth. Treat your friends' chompers with respect: give them fillings of a purely floral kind by buying them a funky ceramic "molar" vase. The Michael Sodeau design pictured here costs pounds 55 from Same (0171-247 9992).