Before you hit the festivities

For all freelancers out there,the Xmas break is the time to get those ideas in to editors

it's a doddle to get your ideas commissioned over the festive season

says James Brown,chief executive of media consultancy Black Ops writting at Media Guardian

In addition to being drunk and impressionable there's a good chance the heads of department will have already gone off on holidays and younger, more open-minded, staff looking to make an impression and recruit a new name might be in charge of commissioning. The start of the year is a great time to come up with some spurious "new trends" idea. If you've walked in off the street and are claiming that urban pole-vaulting is becoming massive and that balaclavas are going to be the look of 2010 then it's more likely to receive a receptive ear at this time of year.