Santa John here with our annual list of gift suggestions for everyone, whether they've been naughty or nice.

Given I have erred more on the former than the latter, it would be a bare old yuletide season for me if I relied on the naughty but nice paradigm for a bit of cheer. Then again, as my mother used to say to me: "Be naughty and save Santa a trip."

Imagine it's Friday night and you're heading out of Melbourne to the weekender on the farm at Merricks ($5.5 million) and your heart leaps when you see the marine-grade, 316 stainless steel weather vane on top of the 1880s homestead, but recently the subject of a $1m reno. It's moving sensuously in the breeze that blows from the cobalt expanse of Western Port. Of course, the vane is in the shape of your Opalescent Golden Sand 1967 E-Type Roadster you bought last week from the Classic Throttle Shop for a snip at $399,995.

To paraphrase Tom Wolfe, "it shows you, you are among the victors!" You live on St Georges Road, Toorak, the street of dreams! You work on Collins Street, 50 floors up, for the legendary Goldman Sachs! You are at the wheel of the country's finest Series 1 Jaguar E-Type 4.2 litre Roadster with one of the most beautiful women in Melbourne beside you! A frisky young animal! You are one of that breed whose natural destiny it is … to have what they want!

Billy Twelvetrees (no, I didn't make it up) and his dad Roger from Longhouse Design (based near Sleaford in rural Lincolnshire) will sell you a stock weather vane of a Jag, Land Rover, Riley or Morris Cowley for $370 (plus postage) or do a custom job depicting the 1956 Ferrari 290 MM you bought for $30m last weekend at RM Sotheby's Petersen sale after a long bidding contest with two other collectors over the phone.

Now moving to literature, instead I am recommending you give Ayrton Senna: Memories and Mementoes From a Life Lived at Full Speed by the late Chris Hilton. This is an interactive book that is always a benefit if, like me, you prefer books with lots of drawings of people with speech balloons telling you what they are saying.

Senna died young and has become a legend. He was a tough competitor ("being second is to be the first of the ones who lose") and a sensational human being. The Ayrton Senna Institute has helped educate more than 7.8 million Brazilian children. Senna's family gave Hilton incredible access so the book includes everything from replicas of his baptism certificate to letters and race agendas to autographed team stickers. The book was originally published in 2009 and copies of that are selling for close to $300, so this new edition is a steal at about $70.

Moving on from the festive season to science. As you know, we here in motoring in the business section believe there should be a zero limit on alcohol, drugs and distractions while driving. We're not wowsers and in fact one of your correspondents has had serious chats to the fun police on at least one of these issues.

But while I have nothing against New Zealand academics, I don't think the latest research study from the University of Otago that James Bond has a chronic drinking problem will be of any benefit in stopping persons getting behind the wheel after a million drinks. My concern is it will do the opposite.

Consider these points from Wilson, Tucker, Heath and Scarborough's paper, "Licence to swill: James Bond's drinking over six decades": "Bond's post-drinking activities included fights, driving vehicles, gambling, sex, athletic extremes and operating complex machinery or devices" like Aston Martins. Well, how good does that sound? In Quantum of Solace, Jimmy drank six vesper martinis or the equivalent of 24 units of alcohol, which the authors note "is enough to kill some people". But while Jim's "movements seem slower than usual, he speaks without slurring". Well, that scientific evidence won't be helping the RBT police.

In case you're interested in getting the conversation going around the Xmas table, here's the Vespa recipe as first described by Ian Fleming in Casino Royale. "Three measures of Gordon's, one of Vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet. Shake it very well until it's ice-cold, then add a large thin slice of lemon peel. Got it?"