It may seem tenuous, but aside from the obvious festive cheer provided by sinking a couple of bottles of Grolsch, there's a genuine reason why guitar players can benefit from the classic swingtop bottle more than most.

Before you take the empties out for recycling on 27 December, make sure you save the rubber gaskets. Aside from providing an airtight seal for the preservation of the glorious golden liquid within, they are also the finest straplocks known to man.

Those pink rubber rings have seen us through hundreds of shows, whereas much more expensive mechanical 'solutions' used to fail, causing embarrassing mid-song strap detachments. And nobody wants that.

You can buy the gaskets in bulk on eBay, but where's the fun in that? Stick a few of these in their stocking instead...