Bath shoppers claim that buying gifts for close family members is often the toughest part of Christmas, with one relative always proving impossible to buy for come the festive season.

As the Christmas rush begins, shoppers say that every year they are left tearing their hair out over relatives who refuse to disclose just what they do want to unwrap on Christmas morning.

Top of the list, not surprisingly, are spouses who, come December 27, can often be found digging out receipts to return those golf videos and ill-fitting lingerie sets.

According to Miriam Pearce, 52, a learning support assistant from Portishead: "My husband just doesn't know what he wants. He plays the saxophone, but he has a saxophone, so what do you buy? He is not interested in clothes so I just can't think of anything else."

Martin Gaffney, 53, an electrical engineer from Winsley admitted to similar headaches over his 'better half'.

"She doesn't know what she wants," he said. "Most of the time she buys stuff throughout the year. It is difficult. I buy her things but sometimes she doesn't like them."

As a result, he said he and his wife have now devised a foolproof scheme. "What we actually do now is write lists of what we want and say 'we'll spend so much money, go away, buy what you want and wrap it up for you'," he explained.

Parents, both biological and via marriage, also come in for heated criticism.

"I don't really know them that well or what they would like," confessed Mandy Moon, 38, a nursery nurse from Oldfield Park, on the trials of buying for her in-laws. "Every year they prove difficult to buy for."

In fact, it appears the older the recipient is, the more difficult it becomes to choose the right gift.

Giles Denny, 39, an artist from the Lansdown area of Bath said: "My father is always hard to buy for. He never knows what he wants and doesn't care if he gets anything. I just don't know what to buy him and that's always been the case."

Yet even the younger generations, whose material appetites seem to know no bounds, can leave relatives fruitlessly wandering the city streets come Christmas Eve.

Lynn Bean, 50, a massage therapist from Combe Down said: "My son is the most difficult to buy for. He is 26. I guess he has everything and I don't know much about chaps. I always buy him PlayStation games and he seems happy with that."