Don't feel washed up for gifts with a little luxury

Thinking up ideas for Christmas gifts can get a bit overwhelming at times. But out of the blue, in the funniest of places, the inspiration suddenly flows. A nauseating trip to your local pub loo might just be one of those places. Aha! You might suddenly think, a Phillipe Stark designer toilet brush for Aunty May - perfect!

In fact, gifts for the bathroom have become increasingly popular at Christmas time.

Rachel Maguire is on of the buyers for Brown Thomas on Grafton Street, in Dublin. "People love a bit of luxury, and bathroom gifts are ideal for pampering", she says. "There is also such a range of options these days that you can get wonderful gifts for everyone from your older relatives to your younger children".

For kids, Supermatey is not quite the ultimate bath fun it used to be. These days it's got to be fair trade organic soap, face cloths with endangered animal prints and at least a half dozen educational bath toys. This year there's a whole new bathtime treat for kids (or adults, for that matter).

A number of shops in town (try Foko on South Great Georges Street or Brown Thomas) are doing the G Star range of `food for the bath'. Jam Gel sold in country market style jam jars, comes in a variety of flavours.

Definitely not edible - these products contain ingredients like loofah, for scrubbing bodies clean (£7.95) They also do a large vanilla scented, chocolate bar soap (£6.95).

If you're worried your children will feel compelled to have a taste (even adults have been known to do this) you could stick with the fizzy bath salts, which you pop in the bath for a mild jacuzzi effect. Packaged like large sherbet sweets in mauve, green, blue, orange, pink and yellow, they cost £3.50 a jar.

This is the sort of thing you could keep hidden away, only to be slipped into the bath on special occasions. There are all sorts of other products in the range including butter (soap) tea (bath soak) even beer (shampoo).

Bathrobes for the young and old are always welcome gifts. But when it comes to bathrobes, the more luxurious the better - so really, it's got to be a Ralph Lauren, £99 from Brown Thomas. In lemon or wine, one size fits all. You could go slightly down market and opt for one of their very attractive towelling and waffle bathrobes in white and cream, which are selling for £50.

Thick, cuddly, and huge, is the only way to go with towels. Organic, unbleached or in a range of colours, even embroidered with personalised initials (any way you want them really) you'll find just about every big department store does luxury towels. An entire set from the face cloth to the `room for two' size towel should cost you around £95 at the upper end of the market. But just the jumbo bath sheet alone would be a lovely present for someone. (£35 in Brown Thomas)

There are all sorts of quirky and unusual gifts for the bathroom these days. From designer toilet seats (Olfa range £88.75, for example) to designer toilet brushes (check out the Alessi designed fluorescent green and lime cactus-shaped toilet brushes, £39.95).

But while people are probably not so fussy about the bathroom, it is important to take personal taste into consideration.

Authentics do a range of hardwearing plastic, hip, without being too in your face, bathroom accessories. They come in various subtle shades. This year they are doing gift sets which include a bath mat, soap dish and soap dispenser (£30) or soap dish, tooth brush and tooth brush cup (£20). The plastic hand-shaped towel holder (£5.95) is always a very popular bet.

Men, especially those with slightly more traditional tastes, might prefer the shaving set from Brown Thomas. In antique gold and white porcelain, it comes with a soap dish, shaving brush and stand, £78.95.

This Christmas there is any amount of strange but wonderful bathroom accessories for the more exotic person in your life. Funky shower caps which come in handy-to-pack tins, for example. Pattern choices include a fetching combat look, or the more `silence of the lambs', pieces- of-face-scattered-across-the-cap look. Hard wearing, these plastic shower caps cost £3.95.

And if you're in the shower in your happening hat, you'll need an equally cool shower curtain. They come in an amazing range of colours and patterns these days, from holograms to real live (looking) gold fish, to pulsing red hearts. A 180cm x 180cm funky pvc shower curtain costs £39.95 from Foko.

Also in Foko an absolutely brilliant idea for people who are trying to figure out ways to cope with dull bathroom interiors but have zero DIY skills; tile transfers.

The transfers come in an amazing range of colours shapes and sizes. Flat or in 3D, there's everything from bright orange splashes to lime green lizards. A pack of two transfers costs £5.95