The Laboratory

With only 10 eating shopping days until Christmas, it's time for a roundup of Christmas food news. Top tip for the festive season is Zum Fest, a continental selection of biscuits, lebkuchen and chocolates: Sarah got one of the best Secret Santas ever, not only some Percy Pig sweets, but also some socks! You may be sick of my complaints about Maltesers, and how their advent calendar doesn't contain ANY, not even on the 24th! Teaser indeed! Well, the controversy from the States is that the Reece's Peanut Butter Christmas Tree ... doesn't look like a tree! What do you think?

Apologies to the 22 of you who tried and failed to see yesterday's calendar (web scripting error) and well done to the 3 who just changed the web address to '15' (sneaky hacker's trick for you there). We've always been a fan of Percy Pig and his tasty sweets, now you can celebrate the season with this stylish Percy jumper with sparkling detailing. There's also a video you can watch at  http://www.marksandspencer.com/percy-pig-jumper/p/p22336527 I think the thing we're most impressed about is that M&S managed to get Penelope Cruz to do the modelling.

After a previous year's disappointment with my Maltesers Advent Calendar* I was very pleased this year to get a Percy Pig calendar. Those unfamiliar with the phenomenon that is Percy should know that he fronts a range of gummy sweets in pig shapes, with varieties including Veggie Percy (no gelatine), Percy & Pals (with cow shapes), and Percy's Pigsty (a new mixture of big and small shapes). My Percy calendar contains a raspberry-flavoured chocolate Percy shape each day, and a picture of, for example, Percy wearing a Christmas tree on his head. It wouldn't be fair not to tell you that these amazing products are available at Marks & Spencers, and there's a whole seasonal range of gifts including Percy & Penny piggy banks, and a Percy lunchbox and flask. * does not contain a daily Malteser Bonus beats: you can become one of Percy's pals by liking his Facebook page -  https://www.facebook.com/PercyPig

If you were looking for a cushion this Christmas, you couldn't do better than this one from John Lewis: If you like pictures of owls in scarfs, you couldn't do better than to follow @wowser on Twitter: If you like owl cushions, the top seller this Christmas is by Donna Wilson , also from JLP: And since today seems to be an animal theme, here's our favourite Marks & Spencers character (no, not Caroline Quentin):