These Christmas stationery gifts are things a stationery lover would rarely buy for themselves but would use every day. For example, there is a Smythson notebook lined in Burberry check and a tape dispenser whose 1960s original is in MoMA. There are also paper scissors from a Sheffield firm founded in 1760.
These Christmas stationery gifts come from three kinds of shop. First, the old London houses; then UK shops that import from Tokyo; and finally the independents that stationery people already trust. They run from £28 for engraved cards to £380 for a silver pencil, with a bonus pick at the end. For gifts beyond the desk, my main Christmas gift guide covers every kind of recipient.
Section 01 / How I picked
How I chose these Christmas stationery gifts
Every pick had to be something the recipient would use daily and would not buy for themselves.
Usually, a stationery person already owns a decent notebook and a pen they like. So a good gift has to be a step up from that, or something they have looked at in a shop window and walked past. In practice, that means named makers, things made by hand, and design classics that have been in production for decades.
I left out anything out of stock or with no UK delivery route. I also left out anything already featured in my gifts under £50 and gifts that look expensive guides. For instance, the Kaweco Classic Sport and the Mark+Fold Glow notebook are both great cheaper gifts, and they live there. Meanwhile, if you are kitting out your own desk rather than buying for someone else, my desk accessories guide covers lamps, screens and mats.
Finally, I checked every price and stock line on 11 October 2026, at the shop each button points to. Stock moves fast before Christmas, so a colour that was there in October may not be there in December.
At a glanceAll 31 Christmas stationery gifts, plus a bonus
Section 02 / The posh British houses
Posh British stationery gifts from the old London names
These firms have bound, engraved and stamped stationery in England for generations.
Burberry x Smythson Soho notebook
Smythson and Burberry have put two British houses into one notebook. It is bound in Smythson's cross grain lambskin and stamped ‘Rain Check’ in gold on the black cover. Inside, it is lined with Burberry's Vintage Check fabric. Then there are 192 leaves of pale blue, gilt-edged Featherweight paper.
It is made in England and measures 14 x 19.6cm, which is roughly a paperback novel. Delivery is free because it costs more than Smythson's £200 threshold. Even so, £210 is a lot for a notebook, and the Burberry check only shows when you open the cover.
For the one who has everything except a reason to write it down
£210 at Smythson
Smythson Travel and Experiences notebook
Smythson's way in costs a lot less. The pocket Panama notebook takes its format from the Panama diary Smythson invented in 1908. This version adds printed headings to every page for logging trips.
It is bound in cross grain lambskin, made in England and holds 128 leaves. At 9 x 14cm, it also fits an inside coat pocket. However, at £65 it sits under the free delivery line, so add £5 for postage.
For the friend who keeps a list of every restaurant
£65 at Smythson
Sangorski notebook, red and silver
Shepherds, Sangorski & Sutcliffe binds this small notebook at its bindery on Rochester Row in Pimlico. It is full red leather, blocked in gold on both covers, with gilt edges and marbled endpapers by Ann Muir.
Inside, there are 38 leaves of 120gsm ivory paper, thick enough for ink and sketching. It is tiny, though, at 85 x 132mm, so this is a gift to admire and carry rather than a daily journal. Red and silver was the only colour Shepherds had in stock when I checked.
For the one who reads the endpapers first
£45 at Shepherds
Bobbio handmade marbled journal
Scriptum, the stationer on Oxford's Turl Street, makes this journal across two countries. First, the marbled covers come from the Wiltshire archive of the marbler Jemma Lewis. Then a bindery in Emilia-Romagna matches each sheet to a leather spine. It fills each journal with handmade Amalfi paper, watermarked with the Amalfi crest and finished with deckled edges.
Every design is different, so you choose from numbered photographs rather than a colour name. The small size is 12.5 x 18.5cm with 100 cream pages, and the medium and large run to £165 and £235. Thirteen of the 55 small designs had sold out when I checked, so if one catches your eye, order it soon.
For the one who will never let anyone else write in it
£125 to £235 at Scriptum
Bronze engraved wren correspondence cards
The Wren Press in Mayfair holds Royal Warrants from the King and the Queen, and still engraves its stationery by hand. These ten cards carry a small wren engraved in bronze on heavy 400gsm white board, with envelopes lined in bronze tissue.
At £28 for ten, they are also the cheapest way into proper engraved stationery on this list. However, each card is 6 x 4.25 inches, which leaves room for about four lines, so they are for notes rather than letters.
For the one who still sends a card after dinner
£28 at The Wren Press
Yard-O-Led Diplomat Barley pencil
Yard-O-Led has made the Diplomat in solid 925 sterling silver, to the same design, since 1934. Its hexagonal body was designed to stop it rolling off a sloping drawing table.
It weighs 27g and is 124mm long, a little shorter than a new pencil. Yard-O-Led can take up to two weeks to dispatch, because the pencils are handmade. Engraving adds five days, so order by late November if you want initials on it. At £380 it is the most expensive pick here, and it only does one thing: it is a pencil.
For the one who will hand it down
£380 at Yard-O-Led
Section 03 / Japanese stationery
Japanese stationery gifts you can buy from UK shops
These Japanese makers are sold by UK shops, so nothing has to clear customs.
Kakimori Gift Set Focus
Kakimori opened in Kuramae, Tokyo, in 2010, and its full made-to-order notebook service is only in that shop. In the UK, The Journal Shop sells Kakimori's gift sets instead. This one holds an aluminium nib holder, a nib and a bottle of Kakimori's Toppuri pigment ink.
Even the box is clever, because it is waxed recycled board held together without glue, tape or staples. One real drawback is the learning curve: a dip pen needs re-inking after about a sentence, which some people love and some will give up on by Boxing Day.
For the one who wants to slow down
£130 at The Journal Shop
Kakimori A5 wooden writing tray
Makoto Koizumi designed this tray for Kakimori. The letter tray is chestnut and the pen rest is Japanese cherry, joined with keyed mitre corners called hikikomi-tometsugi. As a result, it holds A5 paper and one pen.
It measures 17 x 26.5cm, about the size of an A5 notebook with a margin round it. Meanwhile, a recess at one edge lets you lift a single sheet out. It holds exactly one pen, though, so it suits a tidy desk rather than fixing a messy one.
For the one who writes a page every morning
£179.99 at The Journal Shop
Kokuyo x Yanagi Sori rotary tape dispenser
Yanagi Sori designed this tape dispenser in the 1960s. In fact, the original sits in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Then Kokuyo and Yanagi Design 3D-scanned that original to make this reissue.
The base is cast iron, so it stays put when you pull the tape. The white melamine body also turns a full 360 degrees. Admittedly, £355 is a lot for something that cuts tape. So it suits someone who already knows Yanagi Sori's work, such as his Butterfly Stool. Kokuyo has also ended production, so the stock in shops is not being replaced.
For the one with a Butterfly Stool at home
£355 at Japan House London
Traveler's notebook, camel
Traveler's Company celebrates the notebook's 20th anniversary in 2026. The cover is cow leather made in Thailand, and it holds paper refills with an elastic band. As a result, the recipient can add a diary, a sketchbook or a card file later.
It comes with one blank 64-page notebook of Japanese MD paper, a cotton bag and a spare band. I could not find the anniversary edition in stock at any UK shop, but Hunter Paper Co in Belfast had the standard camel cover when I checked. It comes with one notebook, so extra refills are a separate cost.
For the one who keeps every ticket stub
£60 at Hunter Paper Co
Sailor Pro Gear Kamawanu 2026
Sailor has made pens since 1911, and this limited edition is a collaboration with Kamawanu, a Japanese maker of tenugui cotton cloths. The pufferfish design, Fugu-tateoke, plays on fuku, a Japanese word for good fortune. Each design is limited to 400 pens, and each comes with a matching tenugui.
It has a medium steel nib, not gold, which is the main compromise at this price. Also, the second design, cranes and plum blossom, had already sold out at Hunter Paper Co when I checked.
For the one who already owns too many pens
£183 at Hunter Paper Co
Platinum #3776 Century, Laurel Green
The 3776 in the name is the height of Mount Fuji in metres. Platinum makes the 14 carat gold nib in-house. Meanwhile, the Slip and Seal cap stops the ink drying out for over a year, so it still writes after weeks in a drawer.
Even so, it weighs only 20g, about the same as four sheets of A4. Cult Pens sells it in extra fine, broad and extra broad.
For the one who forgets their pen for a month
£250 at Cult Pens
Midori 10 Year Diary
Midori's ten-year diary gives every date of the year its own space, split into ten sections, one for each year. So on any date, you read what you wrote on that date in every year before. Physically, it is cloth bound in navy, stamped in gold and holds 732 pages of cream paper with two ribbons.
It asks for ten years of entries, so it suits someone who already keeps a journal. A line or two a day is enough. Even so, it is a thick, heavy book, so it lives on a desk or a bedside table rather than in a bag.
For the one starting a new chapter in 2027
£59.99 at The Journal Shop
Futagami brass tray
Futagami casts these trays in Takaoka, a town that makes most of Japan's copper and brass craft. Each one is poured into a sand mould and left raw, with no lacquer, so it darkens and changes colour with handling.
In the UK, Choosing Keeping sells it in three sizes, from £45 for the medium to £75 for the extra large. If the recipient likes things to stay shiny, choose something else, because raw brass marks with fingerprints from day one.
For the one who empties their pockets onto the desk
From £45 at Choosing Keeping
“I believe that as the speed of digitalization increases, people’s thirst for analog technology is also spreading.”Takuma Hirose, Kakimori, speaking to DHL
Section 04 / The independents
Gifts from the independent stationery shops
These are the shops a stationery person already trusts, with a pick from each of them.
Enzo Mari flip calendar
Enzo Mari designed this perpetual calendar in 1967, and it is still in production. You flip the day and date by hand each morning, and it works year after year with nothing to replace.
Present & Correct in Bloomsbury sells it in black, white, green and yellow. It is hard plastic rather than metal, which is worth knowing at £135.
For the one who owns a Braun clock
£135 at Present & Correct
Papersmiths Travellers Gift Set
Papersmiths started in Clifton, Bristol, in 2013 and now has shops in London and Brighton. This set holds an A6 notebook with fountain-pen-friendly paper and a pocket ballpoint made with Japanese partners. It also includes a cedar mechanical pencil and an elastic band to hold them together.
In addition, a fourth-generation family bindery in Buckinghamshire binds the notebook. It all arrives in a gift box tied with ribbon, so there is nothing to wrap. Everything in it is pocket sized, so the pen is small in a large hand.
For the one who always asks to borrow a pen
£40 at Papersmiths
Papersmiths Clifton notebook trio
Papersmiths named its A5 hardback notebooks after Clifton, where the shop began. Each has 192 ruled pages of fountain-pen-friendly paper, a cloth cover and two ribbons. A 104-year-old bindery in the South East of England makes them.
The trio comes in a gift box. The covers are vegan book cloth rather than leather, which some recipients will prefer, and the pages are ruled only.
For the one who has a notebook for every project
£98 at Papersmiths
William Whiteley paper scissors
Labour and Wait in Shoreditch sells these paper scissors, made in Sheffield by a firm founded in 1760 and run by eleven generations of the same family. In fact, they are industrial quality, with a coating that resists rust.
At £50 they cost more than most people pay for scissors, and they are made for paper and card only. For a left-handed recipient, Labour and Wait also sells a left-handed all-purpose pair for £65.
For the one whose scissors keep going missing
£50 at Labour and Wait
Meticulous Ink swallow letterheads
Meticulous Ink in Bath illustrates and prints its stationery in-house, on a 1960 Heidelberg Windmill letterpress. This box holds 15 A5 sheets printed with a swallow on 160gsm cotton paper, plus five plain sheets and 15 envelopes lined in yellow tissue.
It is finished with a wax seal and arrives ready to give. There are only five plain continuation sheets, so a long letter uses them up fast.
For the one who still writes to their gran
£35 at Meticulous Ink
Stilform AEON pencil
Stilform, from Germany, made a pencil that never needs sharpening. A magnet holds the tip on, so you swap a worn graphite tip for a new one in a second. Alternatively, fit the Eternal tip, a metal alloy that barely wears. Stilform compares it to a hard 2H pencil, so it gives a light line.
Meanwhile, the body is anodised aluminium with a wood veneer band, and it weighs 27g. It comes with one HB graphite tip only, so add the Eternal tip separately if that is the part they will want.
For the one who loses every sharpener
£75 at The Journal Shop
Doe for Mark+Fold leather cover
Mark+Fold makes this A5 cover with Doe Leather in Walsall, in Havana brown bridle leather. The pen loop comes from Doe's archive of embossed leather swatches, so every cover has a different coloured loop.
It fits every Mark+Fold notebook and diary, so the cover stays and the notebook inside gets replaced. However, £230 buys the cover alone, and a notebook to go in it costs extra.
For the one who will use it for twenty years
£230 at Mark+Fold
Present & Correct’s founder, Neal Whittington, put the case for buying objects like these in an interview with Malin+Goetz: “If something looks great and makes you feel good, then that can be function enough!” Similarly, Labour and Wait’s founders explain why they stopped chasing seasons: “As designers with a menswear background, we grew frustrated by the need to redesign products and ranges every season.”
Section 05 / British makers
British-made stationery gifts from outside London
These picks are made in Cambridge, on the Wiltshire and Dorset border, in Somerset and in Norwich.
Enid Marx collector's drawers
Cambridge Imprint covers these three drawers in Necktie, a pattern by Enid Marx. It is reconstructed from a fragment of her hand-block printed cloth that survives as a tie at Compton Verney. Cambridge Imprint made the paper for the 2026 exhibition The Pattern of Life: Enid Marx and Modern British Design.
Each drawer is 6mm board, covered inside and out, with a brass card holder. They measure 36 x 25 x 19.5cm, about the size of a shoebox. It is board, not wood, so they suit paper and postcards rather than heavy tools.
For the one who keeps every postcard
£260 at Cambridge Imprint
Cambridge Imprint pen box
This pen box is made by hand in England from rigid board and wood, covered in Cambridge Imprint's patterned paper with a cloth hinge. It takes pens, pencils, clips and a ruler.
It is 32cm long and 7cm wide, so it fits along the back of a desk. It comes in a choice of patterns, and the Oak Leaves in sap green is shown here. At 6cm deep, pens lie flat inside rather than standing up.
For the one whose pens live in a mug
£48 at Cambridge Imprint
Compton Marbling A5 diary 2027
Compton Marbling makes every sheet of its paper by hand in a studio on the border of Wiltshire and Dorset. This week-to-view A5 diary is bound in that marbled paper, with a cloth spine, a ribbon and 2027 blocked in gold on the front.
You choose the pattern from a lettered and numbered list, so no two people get the same cover. It is a dated 2027 diary, though, so it has a one-year life.
For the one who still plans on paper
£35 at Compton Marbling
Two Rivers Companion sketch pad
Two Rivers makes paper by hand from cotton and linen at its mill in Watchet, Somerset. The Companion pad holds 16 pages of its 310gsm paper in a spiral binding with hard covers, so it doubles as a drawing board.
The paper takes watercolour, acrylic and pastel, and stands up to reworking. At 20 x 25cm it is a little smaller than A4. Sixteen pages is not many, so it suits finished pieces rather than everyday sketching. UK postage is free.
For the one who paints on holiday
£35 at Two Rivers Paper
Onoto Scholar fountain pen
Onoto made the first self-filling fountain pen in 1905 and now works from Norwich. The Scholar is its everyday pen, in polished black acrylic with gold or palladium plated fittings.
It comes in ten colours, from black to sky blue, though Mandarin had sold out when I checked. The site shows US dollars by default, so switch the currency to pounds before you compare prices.
For the one who wants a pen made in Britain
£195 at Onoto
Section 06 / European paper houses
Christmas stationery gifts from Florence, Heidelberg and Prague
Two picks come from UK shops, and three come from a Prague engraver that only sells in euros.
Il Papiro Elisabetta journal
Il Papiro in Florence makes this A5 journal, sold in the UK by Scriptum. It has a gold-embossed hardback cover, a ridged and tooled spine, marbled endpapers and thick watermarked plain paper.
Green, tan, burgundy and red were in stock when I checked, while blue and black had sold out. The pages are plain, with no lines, so it is for drawing or for a confident hand.
For the one who keeps pressed flowers
£88 at Scriptum
Lamy 2000 fountain pen
Gerd A. Müller, who worked as a designer at Braun, drew the Lamy 2000 in 1966, and Lamy has made it ever since. It fills by piston, with a platinum-coated 14 carat gold nib, a fibreglass body and matt brushed steel fittings.
Lamy sells it direct in the UK with free delivery over £100, in eight nib grades. The nib is half hidden under the barrel, so it does not look like a classic fountain pen, which is either the appeal or the problem.
For the one who thinks less is more
£280 at Lamy
Three gifts from Bohemia Paper, Prague
Bohemia Paper is a Czech family company that has made paper goods by hand since 1995, with a shop on Prague’s Old Town Square. It sells only in euros, so the prices below are in euros. My pound estimates in brackets use the European Central Bank rate on 9 October 2026.
Bohemia Paper leather notebook
A refillable notebook in Italian leather, handmade in the Czech Republic, with 77 lined sheets. It is 23.5 x 18cm, a little smaller than A4, and comes in seven colours.
€109 (about £92)
Alfons Mucha engraved cards
Ten folded cards, each engraved and hand coloured with a different Alfons Mucha motif, with envelopes, in a gift box.
€44.04 (about £37)
Gold Sun correspondence set
Ten A5 sheets engraved with a small gold sun, with matching envelopes, in a gift box.
€32.49 (about £28)
Royal Mail delivery to the UK costs €15 (about £13), with no free delivery threshold, and FedEx and UPS cost more. However, if you would rather pay in pounds, Scriptum in Oxford stocks four Bohemia Paper gift sets, from £48 to £120.
Paying for Bohemia Paper in euros
When you pay in euros, your card provider sets the exchange rate, and some UK cards add a non-sterling transaction fee on top. These two accounts keep that cost down:
- Wise. A Wise account and card convert at the mid-market rate, with a small fee shown before you pay. My Wise referral page has the current welcome offer, which is either a fee-free transfer of up to £500 or a free card.
- Monzo. Monzo is rolling out dollar and euro currency accounts to UK customers in stages, so check the app to see if yours has them. My Monzo referral page has the current sign-up offer.
Section 07 / Delivery
Before you order Christmas stationery gifts from abroad
Most of these picks ship from UK shops, so this applies to Prague and to ordering direct from Tokyo.
Every Japanese pick here comes from a UK shop, so there is no customs charge and UK returns rules apply. The exceptions are Bohemia Paper in Prague and anyone who orders from Kakimori in Tokyo directly.
The rule on tax depends on the value of the order. On goods worth £135 or less, the seller should charge UK VAT at checkout, and there is no customs duty to pay. Above £135, the courier usually collects the VAT, and any duty, from you before it delivers. That means an extra payment and a delay, so keep a Bohemia Paper order under £135 if you can.
Kakimori’s own web shop charges duty and VAT at checkout. It ships by DHL, which costs ¥5,000, or nothing on orders over ¥30,000. Even so, allow at least two weeks for anything posted from Japan or Prague.
For UK orders, the Royal Mail last posting dates for Christmas 2026 are in my Christmas gift guide. Also, engraving on the Yard-O-Led pencil adds five days, and each Bobbio journal is a one-off, so order those early.
| Shop | Picks | UK delivery |
|---|---|---|
| Smythson | 01, 02 | £5, free over £200 |
| Scriptum | 04, 27 | £4.95, free over £50 |
| The Journal Shop | 07, 08, 13, 20 | £3.99, free over £40 |
| Hunter Paper Co | 10, 11 | £3.50, free over £35 |
| Choosing Keeping | 14 | £8, free over £100 |
| Papersmiths | 16, 17 | £3.95, free over £40 |
| Labour and Wait | 18 | £7 under £30, free over £150 |
| Cambridge Imprint | 22, 23 | Free over £75 |
| Two Rivers Paper | 25 | Free |
| Lamy | 28 | £9.95, free from £100 |
| Bohemia Paper | 29 to 31 | €15 by Royal Mail |
Delivery charges are from each shop’s delivery page in October 2026 and can change before Christmas.
Bonus pick
The one for the person who has everything else
A flip clock and calendar from a Hong Kong maker, in production since 1968.
Present & Correct 24 Hour Clock/Calendar
A small Hong Kong company has made this flip clock and calendar since 1968, and Present & Correct sells it in stone, yolk and black. It shows the day, date, month and a 24-hour time on flip cards, and it runs on one C battery.
It is 30.5 x 21.6cm, about the size of an A4 sheet, so it can hang on a wall or stand on a desk. The battery is not included for shipping reasons, so put one in the stocking.
For the one whose desk already has everything on this list
£275 at Present & Correct
Christmas stationery gifts: your questions answered
What do you buy someone who loves stationery?
Buy them a better version of something they use every day, from a maker they would not buy from for themselves. A Smythson notebook, a Lamy 2000 or a set of engraved cards from The Wren Press all work. That is because a stationery lover will use them rather than put them on a shelf. Avoid the generic gift sets in big shops, which a stationery person will already have better versions of.
Where can I buy Japanese stationery in the UK?
The Journal Shop sells Kakimori, Midori and Stilform. Hunter Paper Co in Belfast sells Traveler’s Company and Sailor, and Choosing Keeping in Covent Garden sells Futagami brass. Japan House London on Kensington High Street sells the Yanagi Sori tape dispenser. Buying from a UK shop means no customs charge and UK returns. For more ideas, see my gift guide for Japan lovers.
Is Smythson worth it?
Smythson notebooks are bound in leather and made in England, and they last for years. The Burberry collaboration costs £210, so part of that price is the two names. For the same cross grain lambskin and English binding for much less, the £65 Travel and Experiences notebook is the better buy. For a fountain pen user, the Papersmiths Clifton notebooks have paper made for fountain pens.
When should I order stationery from Japan for Christmas?
Allow at least two weeks for anything posted from Japan, and order by the start of December to be safe. Kakimori’s own shop ships by DHL and charges duty and VAT at checkout. Alternatively, buy from a UK stockist such as The Journal Shop and you avoid the wait and the customs charge.
What are good stationery gifts under £30?
From this list, the engraved wren cards from The Wren Press cost £28 for ten. Beyond that, my gifts under £50 guide includes the Kaweco Classic Sport pen and a Present & Correct stamp set.
How much do these Christmas stationery gifts cost?
They run from £28 for the Wren Press cards to £380 for the Yard-O-Led Diplomat pencil, with the bonus clock at £275. I checked every price on 11 October 2026. The three Bohemia Paper picks are priced in euros, from €32.49 to €109.
More from CoolCuration
- reMarkable Paper Pro review: whether a paper tablet can replace a notebook for someone who takes a lot of notes.
- Jasper Morrison table clock: another quiet design classic for a desk, at a lower price than the flip clock.
- Gifts for bookworms: more ideas for someone who reads as much as they write.
- Structured daily planner app: for the planner who wants their diary on their phone as well as on paper.
- Buy Me Once: a shop that only sells things built to last, if you like the idea behind this list.
Prices, stock and delivery charges change, especially before Christmas, so check the shop’s page before you buy. This article contains affiliate and referral links, which are paid links. If you click one and buy or sign up, I earn a commission or referral bonus at no extra cost to you. Brands don’t choose what I feature or what I say about them.
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