Habitat Christmas range

Everyone knows that highstreet interiors shop Habitat is the place to go for designer Christmas decorations, but it seems to me that its range of quality, innovative toys is often overlooked. Each year they are quietly ushered in at the end of November, and cleared away some time after the January sales. Perhaps because most of the year it's simply a supplier of furniture, textiles and housewares, Habitat is not necessarily first on the list for toys.

Wise shoppers, on the other hand, know that a toy from Habitat will be good-looking and long-lasting, and often comes with its own quirky humour too. This year's range is no exception.

Why, only this morning I was checking out their stunning dolls' house, all wooden, and complete with furniture and a wooden family, which retails at a very reasonable £65.00 (as much as you'd pay for a vulgar piece of plastic at toy shops just down the road). Tabitha was asleep in her pushchair, or I don't doubt we'd have come home with it.

Other highlights are at the cheaper end of the scale: the large-mouthed bear above is £3.50, while the fabulous wooden London bus complete with passengers (below) is worth every penny of its £27.00 price tag. For stocking fillers, you could do a lot worse than their small magnetic photo frames (£2.00), designed for fridge doors. I bought ten.

Bafflingly, Habitat still doesn't sell online: they've had an explanation on their site for years now, explaining that they want to get it just right before they launch. Perhaps the fact that they are owned by the same group as Ikea - also rather late to embrace online shopping - goes some way to explain that. So I am afraid that these gems are available only to Europe, and then only if you have a branch within spitting distance.