DECK THE HALLS: decorations with a difference.
tree time
A Christmas tree should be adorned with decorations collected over the years. It's less enchanting to look at a perfect tree, with everything matching. Save those darling loo-roll angels made in school! The Chester Beatty Library gift shop (01-4070750) in Dublin Castle has some of the best tree decorations around (right), including papier mâché decorations from the north of India, fairies from South Africa and Thailand and hand-carved wood figures from Italy and Russia. They are not expensive and they're festive, and likely to last as heirlooms. has really lovely wooden decorations that cost about €6 per dozen. Charity shops are happy hunting grounds, especially Oxfam nationwide and the Amnesty International shop and cafe in Fleet Street, Dublin 2, which, by the way, is due to close in January - so get there before Christmas. In Dublin, browse through charity shops between George's Street and Camden Street. Enable Ireland, at the bottom of George's Street, often has the best stuff. If you haven't yet got your tree, Garden Works ( www.gardenworks.ie) will deliver one and set it up in its stand.
flower power
Costello Flowers (01-2841864) in Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin has small pots of trailing ivy. They also make some of the best natural wreaths around and deliver them. The owners of Flora flower shop (01-4097887) on Exchequer Street, Dublin 2 have some quirky things such as two-foot high penguins (€22.50, right) made from twigs and sprinkled with fake snow. Also very sweet are small fat robins (€4.50) that would look good covering a whole tree. They also have very tall frosted twigs for €7 a bunch. Some are white, others black. Tie some with a ribbon and stick them in vases.
trade secrets
MacGregor Plastics (01-6794091) on South William Street, Dublin 2, sells items for shop displays (mannequins and so on) and is technically for trade only, but pop in and they won't turn you away. This isn't a glamorous shop but it does have off-beat decorations that you won't find anywhere else. At the moment they have little reindeers made from the same material as a fake Christmas tree. They are about a foot high and cost €15. The same shop also has a five-foot black fake tree for about €80. You'll also find some wonderfully naff things such as huge gold bows and football-sized silver baubles.
swedish style
Some gifts for the home are universally popular, particularly anything made by textile designer Liz Nilsson. The quality of fabric and some very elegant (hand-printed) patterns reflect Nilsson's Swedish taste. Next Friday and Saturday she is opening the doors of her studio for a sale of regular stock, plus some specially made Christmas pieces such as table runners covered with graphic images of little Christmas trees. Also showing in her studio (which is part of her home) will be Sorcha Billett, selling the handbags she designs and sells at prices from ¤60; Eva Kelly with her wonderful glassware and painted glass serving platters; Beth Moran's hand-woven silk scarves and Brigitta Seck's ceramics. See www.liznilsson.com. The studio is at 54 Kenilworth Square, Rathmines, Dublin 6, 086-8307294.