Gifts for those with more money than sense

BRIAN LENIHAN may be planning to cancel Christmas when he dons his Scrooge suit next week, but the country that brought us the credit crunch is still insisting we at least fantasise about bulging stockings.

For while banks combust, stocks plummet and dole queues snake like garlands around a Noble Fir, the always reliable Neiman Marcus depart- ment store chain has published its always extravagant Christmas 2008 catalogue.

This is the American crowd who in previous years offered such helpful gift ideas as personal submarines, adult tree- houses, space flights and his and hers portraits painted in chocolate.