Yes, we know. The physical object is fast becoming obsolete. DVDs, CDs and books can all be accessed in virtual form from this sinister digital cloud we are always being warned about. Never mind that. Nobody wants to encounter an invisible string of data beneath the Christmas tree. It is still a treat to get your favourite show or movie in a nice box with an informative booklet and flattering pictures of the cast. Everything here can be wrapped and unwrapped. And everything here can be enjoyed (though not necessarily by all the family).
Television
It has become an awful cliché, but that waffle about "a golden age for television" really does communicate truths. Many of the most alluring boxes are, however, collections of series that have been with us for some time. If your pal has managed to avoid watching Breaking Bad – and thus been left befuddled at the water cooler – then he or she can now enjoy the entire series via a 21-disc crate (€59.99). The fifth series of Stuart Carolan's Love/Hate – a blockbuster seller the last couple of years – is also available in time for Christmas (€14.99).
This year also saw the arrival of a new kid in the form of True Detective (€39.99), a properly gripping neo-noir starring Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson. Involving much southern-gothic madness, the story passes through a complete arc and, at a relatively economic eight hours, it can be consumed in about the same time as a large turkey. If you'd like something lighter then The Trip to Italy (€12.99), in which Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon eat their way about the Mediterranean boot, should amuse anybody with a taste for self-conscious indulgence. It is also available in a double-pack with its predecessor The Trip (€19.99). A very different sort of gastronomic excess can be encountered in the complete first and second series of Hannibal (€49.99). The extended take on Hannibal Lecter's early adventures gets better and better as it progresses.
Film
Christmas arrives as Oscar season kicks into top gear. But, with Hollywood holding back release dates, the competing films are rarely available for purchase until the crocuses are up. One sure exception this year is Wes Anderson's Grand Budapest Hotel– an epic comedy of middle-Europe – and it can be enjoyed in predictably beautiful edition (€12.99). The kids will almost certainly have seen the brilliant The Lego Movie (€12.99) but this is the sort of film – issued here with a "sing-along" version of "Everything is Awesome" – that even the sourest grouch can watch again and again.
The most original, spooky and divisive film of the year, Under the Skin (€15.99), in which an alien Scarlett Johansson prowls Glasgow, is sure to trigger all kinds of debates over ripped crackers (we call it a masterpiece). If you were puzzled by Lenny Abrahamson's wonderfully off-centre Frank (€14.99), featuring Michael Fassbender as a disturbed rock singer, then attend the commentary by the director and co-star Domhnall Gleeson. Best noisy crowd-pleaser of the year might be Edge of Tomorrow (€12.99), in which Tom Cruise can't keep dying.
If somebody has been really, really good then they deserve the enormous 4-disc reissue of the eternal British booze comedy Withnail & I (around €40). You get new commentaries, a restored print, loads of documentaries, a book and more besides. I feel unusual. I need to go outside.
Music
It's Christmas. You must resist the temptation to force death metal on Auntie Maureen if what she really wants is Ed Sheeran's all-conquering X. Still, if your family do enjoy clattering ritualistic noise then get them To Be Kind, the latest, magnificent riot of discord from resurgent post-punk rockers Swans. Let's assume that anybody who wants Hozier's much-loved, self-titled debut already has it and suggest a less-known singer-songwriter: Sharon Van Etten's Are We There features some of the best songs released in 2014. It's all about off-beat R & B these days and FKA twigs (otherwise known as Gloucestershire's Tahliah Barnett) delivered the slipperiest, most uneasy take of that music with the insidious LP1. Any folk enthusiast yet to get hold of the self-titled LP by supergroup The Gloaming should rectify the situation.
Jazz fans who also like a bit of David Bowie enjoyed the perfect collision this year with drummer Dylan Howe's terrific Subterranean: New Designs on Bowie's Berlin.
Video Games
The gaming sector differs from the world of cinema in that sequels tend to be superior to the originals. Dark Souls II, available on most platforms, expanded on the original fantasy in both size and scope, but it also proved to be considerably more difficult: essential for the patient and the persistent.
The big new releases were Titanfall (above) and Destiny. The latter emerged among waves of hype and, for the online gamer, it worked very satisfactorily as a combination of role-playing game and shooter, but Titanfall offered more straight-up fun and adrenaline rushes. In truth neither is quite so much fun as the latest game in the Borderlands series.
The jokey Borderlands: the Pre-Sequel offered little innovation bar some fun in low gravity. So what? Why tweak a near perfect formula.
For the more relaxed gamer – happy to potter steadily away at his PC or Mac – the latest game in the Civilisation series arrived to much stroking of chins. Civilisation: Beyond Earth invites the player to construct futuristic colonies on far-off planets. If even that's too hectic then Don Bradman Cricket 14 came closer than ever before to replicating the experience of that sport in a game console.
Whether you regard that as a good or a bad thing depends very much on your attitude to the summer game.
