This year's 10 best Christmas gifts for women

12: Cath Kidston Knitting Roll £18

Knitting is the new Rock & Roll. Except, of course with rather more jumpers and fewer submerged Rolls Royces. This nostalgic but hip bag will ensure that needles remain tidily organised between those hypnotically calming knitting sessions and not down between the sofa cushions ready to spear the unwary.

11: Agent Provocateur robe £225

Multimedia

• Picture Gallery: The 12 most glamorous gifts for Women

BACKGROUND

• The 12 best presents for men this Christmas

• The 12 best presents for kids this Christmas

• The 12 best gadget gifts this Christmas

• ...and 2 things to buy for yourself

Every woman yearns to receive something in one of those distinctive peach-and black bags, but not so many appreciate the pressure of trying to cram their post-Christmas curves into a wispy little something on Boxing Day. The AP robe retains all the glamour of the brand in something she can wear whenever the mood takes her.

10: Personalised Chocolate Box £3.99

One for the older woman in your life perhaps. When your Mum gets a box of chocolate with a picture of her grand kids on the lid she won't know whether to eat them or save them forever. Solve the dilemma for her by eating the first one.

9: Fuzzy Nation Dachsund Bag £39

The dog that, mercifully, can just be for Christmas. No woman can ever have quite enough bags, ideally with a small pampered lapdog peering at the paparazzi from within. Here's a delightfully frivolous item that does both those jobs and bundles in a pleasingly cockeyed surrealist charm too.

8: Artistica Sari Silk Fan Bags £35

By contrast, how about a discreetly opulent little number that can just as easily hold a lipstick and a mascara for a touchup in the interval of Rigoletto as it can contain a few betting slips for a night at the dogs.

7: Orla Kiely Mugs £8.95

When the main present is some great intangible, like a spa weekend or a balloon ride over Borsetshire, you need to come up with something small and thoughtful to fork over on the day. These stylish mugs from Orla Kiely will add a certain designer something to morning coffee through 2008 and beyond.

6: Willow Beauty Diaries £19.00

There's something so deliciously romantic about jotting down the thoughts and feelings of the day that few women will be able to resist the allure of these sumptuous grey and pink leather diaries. They include a weekly view calendar with world maps, an address section and ‘post it’ notes for reminders of secret trysts with minor royalty.

5: Vera Wang Compact £35

Ideal for checking on smudged lips, or acting out Spy Movie fantasies in hotel lobbies. Every woman should have a compact and, ideally, this one.

4: Klaus Kobec Contemporary white watch £119

Expensive-looking, stylish, and chunky enough to make the beefiest wrist look like a paragon of waifish delicacy. If it's good enough for Tara Palmer Tompkinson it's probably good enough for commoners like us. And our wives.

3: Westwood Diamond pendant £1433

Vivienne Westwood has managed to infiltrate the Establishment without ever losing her edge, which means everyone from the coolest Camden Indie Chick to the squarest Neo-Sloane will be completely chuffed with her Arrow diamond pendant. Blow a month's salary on this and spend the next eleven months basking on the glow of a job well done.

2: Lunch at Manoir aux Quat' Saisons from £1,090.00 per person

If you really want to splash out, how does the most luxurious lunch date ever sound? A meal at Raymond Blanc's 2-Michelin starred restaurant might be pretty impressive on its own, but throw in Champagne on arrival and a helicopter ride to and from the restaurant and you have the makings of the most memorable meal of next, and perhaps any, year.

1: Butler in a box from around £350

Every man woman and child in Britain should have a butler. And all the butlers should have valets. Let the woman in your life savour the joy of that Utopian dream with a full day of quality butlering. Just imagine what she'll do with all that left-over energy.