To start a festive edition of Weekender, Maxine GORDON offers advice on how to cash in on a cut-price Christmas a our guide to the best gift ideas for under a tenner.

IT all adds up doesn't it? You start off full of good intentions to buy Christmas presents only for your nearest and dearest... but then you remember your great Aunt Joan, and then there will be the Boxing Day visit to cousin George and what if your colleague at work gives you a small gift?

Aargh. The nightmare of Christmas isn't fretting over burning your chipolatas and drowning the Brussels sprouts - it's making sure you've covered all bases when it comes to buying presents.

So, if your Christmas gift list expands as easily as your waistline at this time of year, you need to know where to pick up some spot-on presents at knock-down prices.

We've trawled the High Street looking for the best buys around and found a Santa's sleigh-load of goodies all under £10.

So read on to discover our top ten bargain gift ideas for Christmas...

Good old M&S has Christmas all wrapped up with a range of those old chestnuts - socks and undies - in unusual packaging. Get curried away with socks in an Indian take-away bag (£4) or feast your eyes on The Lunchbox (£5) - two pairs of men's briefs in a sandwich pack.

Buy a bargain from the Oxfam Fair Trade Company and boost the fortunes of Third World producers at the same time. The shop in Low Petergate, York, sells a wide-range of goods from across the world. Look out for Indonesian hand-carved rosewood candlesticks (£8.99, £6.99 and £4.99) or a photo frame (£8.99).

Picking a pressie for a young child can be a challenge, but the Noisy Alien from Boots (£10) should be a safe bet. It's bright pink and when his arms and legs are pulled he starts to talk in his own alien way. Suitable for tots above 12 months.

Enjoy the taste of Christmas - freshly brewed and straight out of your favourite mug. Coffee giant Starbucks has brought out Christmas Blend 2000 - a great gift for coffee connoisseurs, designed to accentuate the flavours of the festive season. Available from Starbucks outlets, a Coffee and Cookie Gift bag costs £6.95.

For people who like to drink something a little bit stronger than coffee, Whittard has the perfect gift. Its Before & After party tube (£10) is the ultimate survival kit for the party season. It contains eye bag teabags, hangover teabags, hangover sweets and stay-awake coffee, which is extra strength and has twice as much caffeine to help you party all night long.

Teens can be tricky to buy for, but we've found a sure-fire winner with the Body Art Kit, from Boots (£7). It includes a set of temporary tattoos, including a belly tattoo, two body crayons, a body stencil as well as a henna stencil and pencil and a glitter tattoo bracelet.

No Christmas stocking is complete without some fancy smellies. Allders has a nice combination of candle and bath oil sets in either red or blue at just £7.50.

Guys and gadgets go together at Christmas like mince pies and mulled wines. Tesco has a good selection of toys for boys at pocket money prices. There's a chrome alarm clock (£6); a multi-purpose tool, complete with scissors, corkscrew and bottle opener (£8); a silver-coloured pocket calculator (£5) and a chrome address book with matching pen (£5).

If good grooming is more his game, then Boots has a stylish chrome shaving rack complete with everything he needs for a close shave: gel, razor, cloth and mirror (£8). Alternatively, combine grooming with gadgetry with the Male.Gadget pack, which comes with a mini radio and alarm clock and shower gel, hair gel and shampoo (£10).

If you always include your pet on your Christmas list - the good news is you don't have to give your dog a bone this year. Thanks to Allders, you can buy Fido a stylish chrome-coloured dog bowl (£10) - and Ginger needn't feel left out: there is a matching cat dish too (£8).