Many of us are looking forward to Christmas, but there are some things we dread about the festive season, such as gift wrapping.

Irish consumers will spend an estimated €528m on food and drink this Christmas — over €100 a head. 

The tills are set to ring out this Christmas, with shoppers expected to splash close to €4bn this month — the best festive spend in five years.

IN spite of the economy’s much vaunted turn-around, as instanced by today’s up-beat and indeed very welcome Retail Ireland forecast that Christmas will be the best in five years, there is no avoiding the reality that society is super-glued in two inflexible tiers — the haves and the have-nots.