Get Christmas all wrapped up

With a bit of planning, there are lots of painless and fun ways to ensure the ideal presents for your loved ones don't get left until the last minute. Christine Houde looks at some of the options

Whoever deemed Christmas the most wonderful time of the year has obviously never been gift shopping. Long lines and even longer lists, crowded stores, empty shelves, pushing, shoving and . . bah-humbug. It's enough to suck the happiness right out of your holiday.

But with minimal planning, Christmas shopping can be almost painless. "The best time [to shop\] is early in the morning," says Marian Casey, a personal shopper at Brown Thomas. "Park your car and start around 9 a.m. The worst times are between noon and 3 p.m., because people who work in town are at lunch."

Despite Santa's tried-and-tested method, Ena O'Rourke, a personal shopper at Debenhams, strongly suggests making a list and checking it once, not twice. "Decide what you're going to buy each person and then just cross their name off. Don't come in a few days later and say, 'I bought him a sweater, but is it enough?' You'll never finish your shopping that way.

"Think about what you're buying and who you're buying it for," she recommends. "We have women who come in here and buy aftershave for men with beards, and men who buy sexy nightdresses their wives won't wear."

Still don't want to set foot in the shops? With websites selling everything from food to flowers, your shopping solution may be only a mouse-click away. "Buying over the Internet is not really any different from buying out of a catalogue or buying at a shop," says Matthew Clark, deputy editor of ElectricNews.net, an Irish technology newswire. "If you trust the name of the shop or the name of the website, then you shouldn't have anything to worry about." Trust doesn't come easy, though, when you're handing personal credit card and address information to an impersonal website.

Clark recommends shopping only on sites that clearly list their return and privacy policies. "When you're buying online, you don't really know what you're getting, so you have to be aware of the return policies. If you buy shoes or clothes and they come to you in the wrong colour or size, are you going to be able to send them back? Are they going to charge you? And more important - what are they going to do with your address information? Sell it?" Big-name websites, such as amazon.com and buy4now.com, tend to be more reliable than smaller, no-name sites, he says. "It's the difference between buying something at Marks and Spencer and buying something down the road at a mom and pop store. The big companies can be easier to trust as far as the average consumer is concerned."

If virtual shopping sounds as awful as a mid-December stroll down Grafton Street, why not turn your Christmas shopping into a short break? No matter how much time - or money - you have to spend, hold onto your sanity and purse strings by getting away from it all. Buy sweaters near Edinburgh Castle, leather in the Barri Gothic or designer sunglasses in Soho. Save money by shopping at abroad-only megastores like Sephora, Costco, H&M or IKEA and searching for cut-rate hotel rooms on websites like www.discounthotel.com.

SHOPPING in the Euro zone makes comparative shopping much easier, and there's lots of value to be had, especially since Ireland has become one of the most expensive countries in Europe. But if you're heading over to the UK, remember the sterling exchange rate is practically prohibitive, so don't forget to do your maths before snapping up that "bargain".

If you want to stick closer to home but skip the humdrum of familiar local shops, make a day of it and head to markets and craft fairs in Dublin, Cork, Galway or Belfast for one-stop gift buying.

No matter how scary the ghosts of your Christmas shopping past, following these leads will help you have your presents wrapped and under the tree in time to sing a few carols and enjoy some festive cheer.