Designer trees and board-game butlers: Christmas in London’s poshest hotels

At Claridge’s they will read your children stories as you sip champagne, while the lights on the Connaught’s tree spell out bespoke poems by Tracey Emin

Eau de humanity: our guide to the best in Christmas perfume gift ideas

Perfume can be the most thoughtful and personal of gifts rather than a last resort, as the Guardian’s resident enthusiast explains

Rowan Moore’s best architecture of 2017

Postmodernism returned in style, Liverpool’s Welsh Streets were saved, but Grenfell Tower defined the year

• Observer critics’ reviews of the year in full

Laura Cumming’s best art of 2017

There was revolutionary fervour from Russia, dazzling critiques of the American dream, and unforgettable faces…

• Observer critics’ reviews of the year in full

The millennials donating 10% of their pay to save the world

Young high-earners can help the underprivileged with a clear conscience

Everything you wanted to know about bitcoin but were afraid to ask

The value of cryptocurrencies is rising fast. But is it sustainable? And how does it work, anyway? These questions, and many more, answered…