Retail Excellence Ireland say that the average household will spend €1,400 on gifts and celebrating the festive period this year.

The group also predict that overall our spending will be up compared to last year.

This weekend is one of the busiest times for shopping as consumers count down the days until Christmas.

The seven-day period before Christmas Day is predicted to see a 7% rise in spending on the same time last year.

Sean Murphy is the Deputy Chief Executive of Retail Excellence Ireland.

He says special offers and promotional days meant that this year's Christmas rush began earlier than the traditional December 8th shopping day:

This weekend is one of the busiest times of year for retailers, as yesterday was dubbed 'Panic Saturday' with people trying to buy last minute gifts.

According to a survey by the Irish League of Credit Unions (ILCU), some 71% of us think Irish people spend too much money around this time - but 60% say there is nothing better than a proper Irish Christmas.

These shoppers in Dublin city centre earlier today shared their techniques for getting their Christmas shopping done.

Originally posted at 14.04