IDEAS:Irish shopping websites have improved since last year: here are a few good ones to help anyone looking for green gifts, writes Catherine Cleary
THERE IS A LONG hot queue of people ahead. Everyone is out of sorts. Wizzard's I Wish It Could be Christmas Every Dayhas burrowed into the middle of your brain. You have several hastily-chosen things in your arms that cost more than you expected, and a sinking feeling that you've forgotten someone. It's the last-minute Christmas shopping experience, and you make a solemn vow never to repeat it.
Somewhere in a parallel and more organised life you are at home with a large glass of red wine and the warm smell of something with citrus and cinnamon baking. You are wrapping presents that have been arriving steadily at your door, delivered by a friendly postman.
Shopping online has its pitfalls. There were the iTunes gift cards ordered last year that threatened never to arrive because the letterbox-sized envelope had to be signed for and we were never home. Then the brother-in-law in London was unable to buy any albums because he wasn't based in Ireland where the gift cards were purchased.
For anyone planning a sustainable Christmas, there are the airmiles to consider when choosing gifts from US websites, which also often insist on shipping to a US address. But Irish-based websites have come of age in the past 12 months and are offering a real alternative to the retail snow blindness of a shopping trip in the teeth of the Christmas rush.
A good starting point is a visit to a website set up by two businesswomen Jo Gallagher and Gina Geagan called www.greenme.ie. The site lists Irish suppliers of environmentally-friendly goods and services under various headings. There are craftspeople, organic gardening course providers, booksellers and baby masseurs.
One of their listings is Cork-based eco fashion retailer Carol Doyle's website, www.belleetik.com. The site gets away from the hemp and chunky knit variety of eco fashion into cashmeres, silks and organic cottons by a variety of designers that you may never have heard of. Doyle offers free shipping in Ireland and a returns policy. So if you don't like the item you can return it with the labels on within two weeks.
A black organic cotton wrap dress from Brazilian Fairtrade designers Tudo Bom costs €55. Scandinavian fashion designer FIN's grey dress with bell chiffon sleeves and a neckline that will make for a daring Christmas party frock comes in at €139. Irish-based French designer Sophie Rieu's Unicorn Design tulip skirt takes eco fashion in a more glamorous direction. The black gaberdine wool skirt ties at the end to give a tulip effect. It is priced at €225.
Mimi Doyle is another French woman who has been a pioneer in Irish online shopping sites. Her website www.mimitoys.ie has been expanded this year, and she has opened a shop in Oaktree Business Park, Trim, Co Meath. The man who is happy to be called Mr Mimi, her husband Myles Doyle, advises people not to trust any website to deliver in time for Christmas if the order is placed after December 12th. "The Irish consumer is very touchy-feely," he says, "much more so even than in the UK".
The appeal of their toy selection is two-fold. All of their suppliers have signed anti-child-labour agreements, and the toys look like something Santa's elves put together in the workshop. A ride-on wheely cow suitable for two- to five-year-olds is priced at €89.95. Shipping anywhere in Ireland is a reasonable €6.95, and you can save on shipping by putting multiple toys on one order. A handy feature on the new website for aunties and uncles is a search facility for toys under age, gender and price.
Alternatively, save on the carbon footprint of a trip to Belfast and take the bus, or get a friend who's on an Ikea run, to pick up the wooden Rocking Moose toy. Priced at £19.99 (€24.45) it is a toddler-sized rocking toy that will look good draped in tinsel under the tree. The shop has plenty of stocking fillers of the wooden toy variety, made from sustainable forests. See www.ikea.com.
Online booksellers have their busiest season at Christmas and delivery times from international warehouses can be tricky. Easons has a website, www.eason.ie, where you can search for a title and buy online. In a slightly Scrooge-like move the free delivery service ended last weekend and it will now cost €7 for the first book and €4 for every book thereafter. Order six or more books and you are guaranteed not to be charged more than €21 delivery.
At the Organic Centre in Leitrim you can buy a foodie present for the person determined to eat healthily after the seasonal blow-out. The Bio Snacky germinator and mini-greenhouse allows you to sprout your own beansprouts, broccoli shoots and other nutrient-packed salad ingredients. The three-tier germinator comes with a packet of organic sprouting seeds and is priced at €24.55. See www.theorganiccentre.ie.
For the eco yoga enthusiast, a Terenure-based website, www.econatural.ie, sells jute and natural latex yoga mats which provide good grip and don't start to smell unpleasant in the same way as ordinary rubber mats can. They are priced at €39.50, with postage costs of €7.95.
A website based in Gorey, Co Wexford, www.babyslingsandoutdoorthings.com, sells a huge variety of baby-carrying slings for new parents and some nifty legwarmers to keep babies cosy when they are tucked into them. They also sell a child's baby sling for €16.95 to allow an older child to carry their doll on their chest just like Mum or Dad. They offer low shipping rates, based on the value of the order, with orders over €150 shipped free.
Looking for something for the gadget eco nut in the family - how about a personal wind turbine? You wear it on your sleeve or the handlebars of your bike and it generates power which can then be used to recharge your phone or music player. The HYmini wind turbine with a bike attachment kit is available from British-based website, www.leafliving.com, priced at €77.45, with a delivery charge to Ireland of €8.50.
For the ultimate green gift, download a pattern for a cashmere and merino wool hot water bottle cover from www.thisisknit.ie. You can buy the wool online, too, or pop into their newly-opened shop in the Powerscourt Centre in Dublin 2.