Nearly half of parents are set to ditch toys and gadgets this year and shower children with £2.4 billion in cash on Christmas Day, a new report says. But do you want to give your nearest and dearest something a little more imaginative than crisp notes inside a Christmas card? Times Money lists some of the best ideas for presents that will benefit the recipient long after the card has been recycled.

Premium bonds

Give Premium Bonds from National Savings & Investments (NS&I), the government-backed savings institution, and your loved ones will have a chance to win prizes of between £50 and £1 million each month. Even better, they can withdraw their cash at any time.

But Premium Bonds do not come cheap. You have to make a minimum investment of £100 (the maximum is £30,000). With £1,000 of bonds you have a 1 in 22 chance of winning any prize every month, although the chance of winning the £1 million jackpot is more remote than the National Lottery jackpot, with odds of 17.9 million to 1 against.

You can buy bonds over the phone (0500 007007) or online at www.ns&i.co.uk. It will take NS&I a couple of weeks to process your application form, so hurry if you want the prize bond certificate by December 25.

Savings and Child Trust Funds

Given the option, your child or grandchild would probably prefer a Transformers robot on Christmas morning, but making a deposit into a Child Trust Fund (CTF) will prove far more rewarding and he or she will be thanking you years after the robot has become a distant memory.

Children’s Mutual, the CTF provider, says that, with an average CTF growth rate of 7 per cent, £100 deposited every Christmas for 18 years would be worth £3,080 when the child reaches adulthood.

For more information on how to make a deposit into a CTF, go to www.childtrustfund.gov.uk or call 0845 3021470.

If your younger relatives are too old for a CTF, there are a number of high-interest savings accounts that you could open in a child’s name. The Halifax Children’s Regular Saver account is the best on the market, with a rate of 10 per cent for the 12 months. If you put away the maximum of £100 a month for year, it will grow to £1,265 by the end of the year.

To open an account in the name of your child, you will need the child’s birth certificate and proof of your identity and address. Accounts can be opened instantly in branches.

For more information, go to www.halifax.co.uk or call 0845 7203040.

Charity gifts

For an ethical alternative to bath bombs and candles, you could give your mother-in-law a toilet this Christmas, or your sister a goat. Oxfam’s Unwrapped range of gifts benefits communities in the developing world. Gifts start at £6 for 100 school dinners, up to £1,700 to build a classroom. A toilet in Africa costs £50. All gifts come with a certificate, photo and fridge magnet. You can buy the gifts at Oxfam stores, by telephone (0870 4105030) or online at www.oxfamunwrapped.com.

Alternatively, you can support a cancer patient undergoing a clinical trial for £50 with Cancer Research UK (www.cancerresearchuk.org) or buy school shoes for pupils in an

African school for £13 with Christian Aid (www.presentaid.org). Further information is available from www.charity-commission.gov.uk or call 0845 3000218.

Debt amnesty

Students owe an average of £777 on their credit cards, according to a survey by Halifax. To make their life easier in the new year you could offer to clear your son or daughter’s credit-card balance without any questions or lectures.

It may be wise to insist that the offending cards are also cut up, but that will probably be a price worth paying for most twentysomethings. It will save them an average of £104.98 in interest over the course of the next 12 months.

Shares

If your loved one is a fan of Tottenham Hotspur, Millwall, Rangers, Celtic, Southampton, Birmingham City, Sheffield United or Watford, you could buy shares in these Stock Exchange-listed clubs. This week Watford shares were trading for 27p, while Tottenham shares cost 137p.

To buy shares in Arsenal, which is not quoted on the Stock Exchange, it is necessary to go through a broker. Shares in Arsenal currently cost up to £8,800.

Shares for children need to be bought in a parent or guardian’s name. The broker will also charge a commission on buying and selling the shares.

For more refined tastes, how about Siberian Railways? A framed antique share certificate can be bought from the International Bond and Share Society at www.scirpophily.org.

Gold

A gift of gold need not be the traditional necklace, ring or other trinket. While a gold bar or coin may seem less than romantic, these gifts can prove far better value because jewellery tends to be sold at a premium.

Gold bullion can be bought from the World Gold Council (www.gold.org). Small gold bars and coins are available from as little as £50 Even farther away from a pair of glittering earrings, but probably a wiser investment, would be to purchase units in a gold fund on behalf of your loved one.

Philippa Gee, of Torquil Clark, the financial adviser, says: “While expensive pieces of gold require insurance and regular valuations, units in a gold fund will grow your investment faster and lend greater peace of mind.

“At this time of stock market uncertainty, gold has an inherent strength and there has been huge demand among small investors responding to strong returns.”

Buying units in a gold fund is best done through a discount broker. The minimum investment is usually about £500, but it is possible to spread the cost. For example, you could invest for about £50 a month. In the past five years the price of gold has trebled. The price now stands at about $800 (£391) an ounce, compared with $250 five years ago.

Collectors’ items with star quality

FILM memorabilia can make a great Christmas present and represent a solid investment opportunity for budding collectors of any age, James Charles writes.

Props, film stills and signed books from the Harry Potter series went under the hammer recently at Christie’s, the auctioneer. A match programme for Harry’s favourite sport, Quidditch, which appeared in the film, sold for £2,200.

Catherine Williams, a Christie’s specialist in popular culture and entertainment, says: “Objects from the Harry Potter films are very collectible and have done well at recent sales. However, it is hard to know what will stay in fashion.”

Christie’s always advises buyers to stick to objects in which they have a genuine interest. Boys, young and old, love Star Wars memorabilia, which remain incredibly popular at auction. Christie’s recently sold a number of Star Wars Stormtrooper helmets, used in the original films, for £16,000 each.

If the man in your life is more 007 than Obi-Wan Kenobi, Christie’s has an auction on December 19 featuring a square $500,000 gambling chip from the 1967 version of the James Bond film Casino Royale. The chip is expected to fetch between £400 and £600.

For a guaranteed return on your alternative investment, you could buy someone a rare stamp or authentic autographs of George Washington, Beethoven or Einstein from Stanley Gibbons, the auctioneer. It promises 6 per cent growth in the value of your item over ten years.

Bargain buys

Looking for a more conventional gift? Bargain hunters can find cheap deals on the internet, Elizabeth Colman writes.

A 50ml bottle of Kylie’s Darling Eau de Toilette will set you back about £25 in the shops, but you can buy a bottle online at Superdrug.co.uk for £19.95 plus a delivery charge of £2.50. Orders need to be placed before December 20 to guarantee delivery in time for Christmas.

Comparison sites can find the best deals on games and gadgets. Pricerunner.co.uk and savebuckets.co.uk scan hundreds of retailers to find digital cameras, Nintendo DS systems, iPods and Sony PlayStations.

For example, a Sony PSP Slim and Lite with three action games is £209.99 at Hamleys, the toy store, but savebuckets.co.uk can find the console and games for £189.99. Delivery is free but orders must be placed by December 20 for Christmas.

CASE STUDY: Charity first

Peter Scarob and his wife, Aoife Walsh, both 28, have given each other charitable gifts every Christmas since they were married four years ago.

Last year the Oxford couple, pictured with their children Oscar, 4, and Aobh, 2, decided to give all their friends and family presents from the Oxfam Unwrapped catalogue. Mr Scarborough says: “We tried to match the gifts to each person. My father-in-law works as a researcher for the Institute of Education, so we got him training for a teacher in Africa.”

Although the couple still buy conventional gifts for birthdays, Mr Scarborough adds: “We see Christmas as a time for our children anyway, so we are not worried about buying presents for each other. It is great that we can choose gifts that we are interested in, but the point is that we are giving something to Oxfam.”