5 best museums for gifts

This is the time of year when we're all in need of inspiration. Visit these shops and not only will you find unusual gifts, but your cash helps to keep the museums open for business.

DESIGN MUSEUM You're guaranteed street cred with stocking-fillers such as a Philippe Starck fly swatter (£8).

At the de luxe end, spoil someone with an elegant Otto Rittweger tea infuser (£89). And if anyone is still looking for a present for Ken Livingstone, Ed Carpenter's pink Pigeon Light (£55) fits the bill. Design Museum, Shad Thames, SE1 (020-7940 8790). www.designmuseum.org.

VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM The shop has exclusive designs based on major collections. For children there's the Tippoo soft toy tiger (£6.50, above), modelled on the museum's wooden effigy of the big cat mauling an English soldier. Gifts based on originals by Sixties fashion designer Ossie Clark make good choices for adults - a T-shirt from a print by his wife and textile designer Celia Birtwell is £24.95 or a silk scarf costs £49.95. Victoria And Albert Museum, Cromwell Road, SW7 (020-7942 2000). www.vam.ac.uk.

THE BRITISH MUSEUM Baffle someone with an 800-piece jigsaw of the Rosetta Stone (£9.99) or let them decorate their kitchen with the Dress-up Tut - an ancient Egyptian fridge magnet with casket, loin cloth and other mummification must-haves (£14). For less frivolous offerings, try miniature Buddha heads from Angkor and Japan (£25 each) or Heartweave pewterhandled salad servers (£45) based on work by Czech artist Alphonse Mucha. The British Museum, Great Russell Street, WC1 (020-7323 8898). www.thebritish museum.ac.uk.

NATIONAL MARITIME MUSEUM Travel, time and universe come high on the agenda here. There's a world globe for children (£7.99) that spins on both axis, while stargazers will appreciate a version showing the stars and main constellations as they appear from earth (£25, right). Lots of unusual time pieces include a pleasingly pareddown Forties-style mantel clock (£60). National Maritime Museum, Park Row, SE10 (020-8312 6565). www.nmm.ac.uk.

THE NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM It's your first stop for coffee-table material with a difference. Beautifully illustrated books on specific themes include Crystals (£7.95) and Ammonites (£15.95). And with a suitably green agenda, the museum has just introduced gifts based on recycling (left). Old coffee cups and tyres are transformed into pencils, rulers and mousemats (99p-3.99), compressed plastic bags form the covers for notebooks (£5.99), while fallen yew and elm trees have been turned into unique bowls and boxes (from £24.99). The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, SW7 (020-7942 4000). www.nhm.ac.uk.