Social media-driven craze puts ‘squishies’ up there with evergreen favourites such as Lego and Barbie, Hamleys says

A cartoonish banana so addictively squidgy that it is “really difficult to put down” is tipped to be among the must-have toys this Christmas, according to expert buyers at Hamleys.

The £10 “slow-rise, squeezable, sensory” fruit taps into the “squishies” craze that is fuelling a high street boom in toy sales. In the coming weeks, Hamleys expects to sell thousands of the Big Squij toys, which come in a variety of food and animal shapes filled with a flour-based compound.

Christmas is getting closer, and this year’s calendars are already on sale. We tested the biggest releases to find the ones worth buying, including cruelty-free picks

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Christmas might feel like an age away, but the festive season has already begun for fans of beauty Advent calendars. Most of this year’s calendars are now on sale or available to preorder, and many of the most popular could sell out long before Whamageddon claims its first victim.

So, much as it pains me to say it, now might be a good time to buy one. Below, you’ll find my favourites, from bargain beauty Advent calendars under £50 to three-figure luxuries. I’ve tested 20 to find calendars packed with cult-favourite products suitable for a whole spectrum of skin types and preferences. I also looked at the packaging and broad appeal of each calendar to help minimise waste.

From Miss Babs in Acorn Antiques to Calendar Girls, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and her infamous appearance on The Celebrity Traitors, it’s hard to know where to begin

Celia Imrie has had such a varied career, it’s hard to know where you might know her best from. Maybe it’s as Miss Babs, the permanently flustered antiques-shop owner in Victoria Wood’s Acorn Antiques, or as Philippa Moorcroft, Dinnerladies’ spectacularly uptight HR manager. Perhaps it’s as Bridget Jones’s family friend Una Alconbury, or from Calendar Girls, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel films, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again.

Maybe you know her as Mrs Quickly, the ghastly would-be stepmother in Nanny McPhee. Or maybe you first encountered her in Upstairs, Downstairs, To the Manor Born, Bergerac, Lovejoy or The Darling Buds of May, or as Claudia Bing, the magnificently awful PR rival of Jennifer Saunders’ Edina in Absolutely Fabulous.