Stock up your stocking with Muji

I rely on Muji for two essentials:

1. Those see-through plastic boxes that I use to hold everything from shoes to nail varnish to pay-slips.

and

2. Stocking fillers.

Muji are just fantastic for tricky gifts for secret Santas, silly gifts for loved ones, or easily-postable gifts for people overseas. I've lost track of the amount of times I've given the London in a Box set. This year, they've surpassed even their own high standards and their range is bound to include something for even the most selective of stockings.

Here's the one for your friend with a serious case of wanderlust: World Heritage in a Box. For £14.95, it would inspire a globe's worth of new adventures. Or, alternatively, it could inspire a new hobby of woodworking - I'm completely in awe of the little woody craftiness of this set.

This push-out safari kit is an instant winner: it's under a fiver (£4.50 to be precise), excellent for posting (until assembled that is - you don't want the rhino's horn to get squashed do you?) and wonderfully silly. Constructing a cardboard hippo is something that will add a bit of sparkle to any Christmas.

Perfect to add a bit of fun in the office, or as an alternative to a squabble-filled festive family game of Monopoly is this portable table tennis set. It's £19.95.

And finally, I love the very old school nature of the wooden solar system model. For £16.95, it's cheap-ish, colourful and vaguely educational for those Christmas days where you feel your brain has gone to mush. One downside: can you imagine trying to wrap this thing? And that's exactly the point where you revert to Muji essential items no.1: check out their range of plastic boxes (for life, not just for Christmas).