Oh come, all ye frugal, and tuck into this selection box of tips for avoiding financial distress during the festive season, from freezing your stuffing to buying the drink that’s very like champagne but much cheaper
The cost of a typical Irish Christmas for a family of five comes in at an eye-watering figure
Supermarket group promises flexible hours and shift options in effort to attract festive staff for 178 stores
Mini packages for beauty lovers designed to be opened as a countdown to the festive season: what’s not to love?
BBC paused rehearsals of Christmas special over joke where ‘racial term was implied’
Like-for-like Irish sales up 5.5% for Christmas period
Highlights include Dancing with the Stars and a new series of Room to Improve with Dermot Bannon
There are several ways that you can put your old Christmas tree to good use in your garden
The emotional toll is clear though as she recalls how lucky she felt to purchase this house
In a Word ... Sloth
In Canberra, Australia, everything except the people seems to be so much more intense than at home
Maria Ramos’s grandson ended up in Orlando, 160 miles away from where she was waiting to meet him
ISPCC reports 20% increase in number of calls to Childline between December 23rd and Christmas Day
Panicked bargain hunters feared missing out on discount televisions and matresses
Turkey broth, and pea and ham soup, will stand you in good stead for a new year
Television: Brendan O’Carroll should be praised for addressing dementia sensitively but the show is sorely lacking in laughs
More than 200 volunteers assist more than 550 guests at 99th meal event for the homeless run by Knights of St Columbanus at Dublin venue
Festive swimmers at Forty Foot in Sandycove enjoy sea temperature of 10 degrees, closing out a year of unseasonably warm Irish coastal waters
Ireland remains one of most peaceful and prosperous countries in world, according to most international metrics
Nurse Colin Plunkett has helped to ensure the smooth running of operations at the oncology department in Tullamore hospital over Christmas
Rosita Boland reflects on two very different Christmases in far away places
Christmas is better expressed through poetry, not prose. Prose typically deals in the raw stuff of lived experience, while poetry is strained through memory
Television: What a shame it would be if this is the end: Lot No 249 is a gift-wrapped helping of yummy mummy mania
This is a time that drags every ‘should’ and ‘ought’ you’ve stored away to the forefront of your mind. The relationships you don’t have. The ones you have but feel alone in. The people whose chairs will be empty
Ask Roe answers two queries: A best friend with a big personality and family conflict over Christmas
Christmas is a time of abundance and often excess, but try not to fill your plate or others’ to the brim
If you look at the original nativity scene, you do not see the weight of toxic individualism and judgment
Rite & Reason: On Christmas Eve, the frantic shopping is over. The feasting has not yet begun. It seems to me that the natural and spiritual worlds are in harmony. Awe is in the air
Jan approached the meat counter. I wouldn’t hold out much hope, the butcher said. Did she detect a smirk?
Answer questions on the year’s talking points to be in with a chance to win an overnight break for two
If Christmas has a seam of holiness in a broken world, it is in gazing out on midwinter and telling the darkness to be gone
Orla Tinsley: As I fought for life, the joy and magic of seeing Mariah Carey live, suspended in time, was something that could live forever
With its links to Scrooge and A Christmas Carol, Shrewsbury beats an independent retail path in a nation blighted by identikit high street outlets
Comedian Peter McGann would rather eat beans than turkey and has no work next year but, on the upside, he’s in Chris O’Dowd’s new show
Crosswords & puzzles to keep you challenged and entertained
Full general election coverage including analysis and results for all 43 constituencies
How does a post-Brexit world shape the identity and relationship of these islands
Weddings, Births, Deaths and other family notices
