Gifts for someone who has everything: nine things they cannot already own

Everyone has one person on their list who answers "what would you like?" with "nothing, really". Usually they mean it. They have the jumper, the gadget and the good bottle of something, and another one of any of those will be put away with the last.

The answer I have come to is to give them something they cannot already have, because only one was made. Everything below is either a one-off or made by hand in a craft that very few people still practise, and two of them are on the Heritage Crafts Red List of endangered crafts. They range from six pounds to fifteen hundred.

WHAT TO GIVE SOMEONE WHO HAS EVERYTHING

Something with a person behind it. A thing that was made once, by someone you can name, has a story attached that a shop-bought present does not, and it is the story that people remember. It also helps if it is useful or will hang on a wall, so it is not one more thing to find a place for.

A large oak vase by Greg Kent. It is a single piece of sculpture rather than something made in a batch, so the person you give it to will own the only one. This is the most expensive thing here, and the one for a significant birthday or retirement.

An original oil painting by Joshua Lea of a place that matters to them, painted from your own photograph: a garden, a view from a holiday, the house they grew up in. Nobody else can have this one, because nobody else has that photograph. The smallest size is forty pounds.

A snake cut from paper that has been marbled twice, by Nichola Daunton in north east London, mounted on A3. Marbling is done by floating colour on a bath of size and lifting it off with a single sheet, so no two sheets come out the same. Heritage Crafts lists paper marbling as endangered.

A hand-sewn chapbook of four short stories by Natalie Tiede, set by hand in blackletter metal type and illustrated with block prints. Letterpress printing is also on the Red List as endangered. For a reader, it is a book they will not find in any shop.

A hand-pulled linocut by Natalie Tiede, inspired by the folk ballad of the same name. Each print is inked and pulled by hand, so each one varies slightly. It suits someone who likes folk song or old stories.

A lumbar cushion by Slow Progress in navy, brown and stone linen, hand quilted in a striped grid. It is a one-off, so it will not be made again.

A beaded snowflake by Ksenia Semirova, filled with white and silver beads and lifted by turquoise and iridescent vintage crystals. It is made to hang on a tree or in a window, and it is the kind of decoration that comes out every December for the rest of their life.

A solid ash box with a hand-carved lid by Claire Broad, for a watch, cufflinks or letters. It is the present I would give a man who says he wants nothing, because he will use it every day.

An original collage of a Light Sussex bantam hen, cut by hand by KR Moorhead from thrifted materials and mounted on a small card. At six pounds it is the smallest thing here, and it is still a one-off, so it works well alongside a larger present or tucked into a stocking.

WHAT TO GIVE A MAN WHO HAS EVERYTHING

The ash box and the oak vase are the two I would look at first, because one is used every day and the other is a single piece of sculpture that nobody else will own. For a dad who says he wants nothing, the painting from a photograph is the safest choice on this list, since it is about him rather than about the shop.

THE ONE I WOULD CHOOSE

I would choose the painting from a photograph, because it is the only present on this list that is about the person receiving it rather than about the maker, and it will hang where they see it every day.

ORDERING IN TIME

For UK delivery before Christmas, order ready-to-ship pieces by Monday 14 December, and by Friday 4 December for the United States. Made-to-order pieces and commissions, including the painting, take longer, so message the maker first if it is for Christmas.

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