Unwrapping mapping: Ten cracking Christmas gifts

If you’re stuck for an original gift idea this Christmas, a mapping solution from Ordnance Survey could be just the ticket. OS Select–Explorer puts you in the centre of the map, placing your house, holiday retreat or favourite British destination in the middle of its own plotted local landscape. You can add a title and images to your map, delivering a new dimension to a Christmas stocking to unwrap your local area.

Whether you’re keen to explore your neighbourhood during your seasonal time off, find an original gift for friends who’ve moved away, boost your business profile or keep a historical portrait of your home town, OS Select–Explorer can be ordered online for a personalised picture of the world through your eyes.

Subscribers to OS Select–Explorer add a new dimension to their festive activities, regardless of their interests or location. Perhaps you’ve been invited to a party in an unfamiliar part of town or you’re hunting down a local Christmas market to complete your seasonal shopping? More adventurous ramblers take photographs for Christmas cards and calendars as they explore the local environment, while festive individuals can navigate their neighbourhoods in search of churches hosting carol concerts, Christmas parades and Santa’s grottos.

Perhaps you want to hand deliver your Christmas cards, map a Christmas carol route or find another supermarket in your endeavour to track down an elusive turkey or evasive sack of sprouts? With a map centred on your house, you can familiarise yourself with regional routes to make sure you’ve always got a clear path back home. OS Select–Explorer can also complement other gifts, for example, an extreme sports voucher or activity day, showcasing the site of your treat complete with a personal message of goodwill.

And if you’re feeling especially festive, why not try to track down Santa Claus himself? With clues to his Great British holiday residence littered around the country, why not make Deeping St Nicholas, Santa Pod Raceway, The Grotto, Christmas Hill or Cringle Ho the focus of your Christmas break? Mappy Christmas!

To order OS Select–Explorer or for details of local stockists, visit www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/osselect

Back to the Christmas home page

Give something different for Christmas

Sick of giving socks for Christmas?

OS Select Top Ten Ideas

1. Unwrap your local area

Explore the neighbourhood during your well-earned time off with a map that puts your house in the heart of the action.

2. Christmas gifts online

Update a loved one’s local mapping without leaving the house by ordering
OS Select^™–Explorer online, personalised with a title and cover photo of your choice.

3. Plotted fitness regime

With a diet inevitable after your festive spread, plump for a cheap exercise solution and start roaming your local community.

4. Present a subtle hint

We’ve all got an elusive family member reluctant to come back for Christmas. Remind them what they’re missing and help them find their way home.

5. Mapped Christmas retreat

If you’ve got a favourite place to spend the holiday season, OS Select–Explorer helps you make more of your Great British winter break.

6. Personal tutor

For students with geography coursework looming over your Christmas holidays,
OS Select–Explorer puts your studies at the centre of the map.

7. Glimpse of home

Send a customised copy of OS Select–Explorer to long-lost friends who’ve left the area to reflect on happy memories of the life back home.

8. Interactive business tool

Companies can make sure they’re in the centre of their customers’ world, with
at-a-glance analysis of the district forming a neat corporate Christmas gift.

9. Winter tour guide

Nothing feels more like Christmas than a brisk walk in the winter weather. The
water-resistant OS Select–Explorer can cope with anything the elements throw at it.

10. Trace your family tree

Generate a map of your ancestors’ stamping ground and marvel how the landscape has changed since your family cast down its roots.