Fi Phillips

This is Day One (window one) of my advent calendar of gifts for writers. I thought I'd start with something that's not only fun but could also be useful for inspiring writerly youngsters - Magic and Fairy Tale Dice. Each die provides a different element of a story - a character, a prop, or a place. The Magic and Fairy Tale Dice would be perfect for a family game but equally could be a fun writing prompt too. I found these in the Alzheimer's Society's online store   priced £9.95 but you can also buy this dice set on Amazon, eBay and several book and toy related stores.

It can be denied no longer - Christmas is almost upon us. December starts next week and to accompany the festive month, I'll be posting an advent calendar of gifts for writerly types. Fingers crossed my husband reads them (hm - may have to type them noisily while he's around).  Keep looking in each day for lots of lovely gift ideas.

The first part of most people's Christmas day (not all, I admit) is the ritual of opening presents - checking the tags, handing them out to the right people, then ripping off the paper with cheerful abandon. Gift giving has become one of the main elements of the festive season - writing a list of what you'd like, planning what you'll get everyone and how much you can spend, looking out for bargains in the shops, buying the gifts themselves, wrapping them, arranging them around the tree (after first hiding them in a cupboard or wardrobe for a couple of weeks), handing them out and opening them. As parents, we can feel especially pressured into following this routine. We want our children to adore their presents so we spend more and more on them. My parents were just the same. I'd get the "We can't afford as much this year" speech at the beginning of every December and yet I'd still have a pile of presents on the day. Of course, we'd spend Januar...