It’s testament to my love of shopping that I’m starting to think about Christmas presents already.  Wrapping them that is, rather than actually buying any.  It was during a visit to Chinatown (for yet more lantern fun; I think I’ve had my fill now) that inspiration struck as we wandered down Sago Street.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Chinatown but Sago Street’s shops are the most unlikely places to be tastefully inspired by, on the basis they’re more or less stalls that sell tat. But keep walking (in my case it was towards a Tong Heng egg tart on South Bridge Road) and just next to the temple you will find her – pictured above.

A lovely lady selling hundreds upon thousands of beautiful handmade silk tassels.  Very Shanghai Tangs in their colour combos – think emerald green and shocking pink, pale blue with mustard yellow – I have scooped up a load to perk up my Christmas parcels with (although they are currently hanging on my wardrobe door).

I love to wrap up with traditional and very dull brown parcel paper that I usually smarten by way of a top layer of see-through clear cellophane (bought in industrial quantities for next to nothing from the flower market in Edinburgh) finished with a thick red ribbon.

 I’ll now be trading in my spools of letterbox red grosgrain – think London letterboxes vs Singpost’s white ones for this to make any sort of sense – for yards of skinny ribbon in tassel matching colours. The pièce de résistance will be (well, obviously the present inside I hope, but also…) the tasstle in the centre of a demure bow.

Five silk tassles cost just $10 – regardless of size.