Our post-Christmas guide to consumers' retail rights will help sort out gift returns and refund-related problems

It is that awkward time between Christmas and the new year when the only worthwhile thing you can achieve is work out what on earth to do with all those presents that you don't like or which are faulty.

Online fraud most common deception as 2.47 million people fall victim to scams in 2010, according to Age UK

More than 2.4 million people fell victim to a scam this year, with teenagers and the over-80s proving particularly vulnerable to cheats and fraudsters, according to new research by the charity Age UK.

New powers to force energy companies to disclose their wholesale trades could give energy regulator Ofgem teeth. And so returns that hardy yuletide perennial: a story about high energy prices and empty threats from the regulator.

Here is this year's version, as launched yesterday. Annoyed by the rise in energy firms' profit margins (up 38% over the past two months alone, which makes the mark-up on a standard dual-fuel tariff £90), the gas and electricity watchdog has announced a probe into pricing. Ofgem's review will be wide-ranging and even quite aggressive, going by the warning from top regulator Alistair Buchanan that he wants to "ask if companies are playing it straight with consumers".

Christmas 1944 in bombed-out Birmingham. A German PoW invited round for lunch, and your best present is a bar of Bournville chocolate. But some things never change: Patsy Cashman, 10 years old at the time, recalls how she would do anything to avoid eating her sprouts …

Just like children today, we were breathless with excitement about Christmas. We were even allowed to stay up on Christmas Eve to go to midnight mass. The church was two miles away and it was a big adventure to walk out at night during the blackout. But it was also a bit scary. My younger brother, Gerard, was only eight, but decided he was going to look after me. Every time he heard a noise he'd jump up and cry: 'Who goes there, in the name of the King!'