This December 8th the Irish Small and Medium Enterprises Association (ISME) is calling on shoppers to buy their gifts in Irish shops.

ISME CEO Mark Fielding wants us to ignore the "imported US gimmicks of Black Friday, Cyber Monday" and to "think Irish and buy local".

The association says that every €10 spent locally on Irish products can add up to €24 in benefit to the local economy, with 45c out of every euro given to a small business getting reinvested into the economy.

Mr Fielding also made reference to the tough climate that small business owners operate in: "While Irish retailers and suppliers struggle to maintain and create Irish jobs, it is vital that we support our own local enterprises. By buying Irish we secure Irish jobs."

Cautious Optimism

While the Irish economy has been recovering, and will grow by almost 5 percent this year, the benefits of this growth have been slow to trickle down through the economy. That said, as we head into the business end of the Christmas shopping season all indicators suggest that this could be a bumper year for Irish retailers.

A report released by Savills today says that Irish high streets could have their best Christmas since 2007. It also predicts that there will be 1.1 million pedestrian movements per week on Dublin's Grafton Street and Henry Street between now and the end of December.

The Irish League of Credit Unions also published figures today, showing that 30 percent of Irish people feel better about their financial situation going into this Christmas period, up from 25 percent last year. It also found that 71 percent of people think that the Irish spend too much on Christmas - and that 60 percent say that nothing beats a proper Irish Christmas.