In the UK, statistics have shown that shares rise in the month of December around 80% of the time, and hence the term 'Christmas rally' being widely used around this time of the year. With this in mind I thought I'd start early this year and compile a list of 10 shares I think could rise strongly between now and 1 January 2008.

More on My Top 10 List Of UK Shares To Buy For A Christmas Rally In 2007

Obviously if you have multiple properties and they all go up in price, then yes you can make very handsome profits as their values will far exceed the mortgage costs when you come to sell them, but if you only own one main property then the story is less clear-cut.

It's a common misconception that every homeowner is rolling in cash after the recent property boom that has lasted several years now, but the truth is somewhat different. More on Do You Always Profit From Rising House Prices?

Just yesterday I was looking at the woefully low share prices of Royal Bank of Scotland and Barclays and thinking how much they reminded me about BP and Vodafone when their share price struggled in recent years.

The similarities are very striking. They are all some of the biggest heavyweights in the FTSE 100, and yet at times they've become really unloved and hit ridiculously low levels.

Let me give you a quick bit of background. More on Current Lows In Banking Shares Remind Me Of BP And Vodafone's Recent Woes