The Dublin Male’s Guide To Last-Minute Christmas Shopping

You've done it again, haven't you? At the start of December you vowed to get all your Christmas shopping out of the way early yet here you are with just a few days to go and you've got nothing bought. Same.

The good news is I've been in this situation many times before and am here to help you navigate the last-minute Christmas shopping in Dublin you've once again needlessly resigned yourself to.

This guide should ensure that none of your loved ones need to be disappointed for any other reason than being associated with disorganised, thoughtless person like yourself.

I mean, you should really be feeling completely ashamed of yourself. But once you're finished doing that, read on.

Timing

You're most likely in work until Friday so that rules out any daytime shopping during the week. If you are off and have all the time in the world to pick up your bits, well, lucky you, eh?

The hours between 11am and 8pm are the witching hours for last minute Christmas shopping so don't even think about it.

Get in and out around 9 or 10 in the morning or head in around 8pm when most of the crowds will have gone home. You'll probably only get an hour or so but if you've left it this late you're probably not going to get anything much good, let's face it.

Oh, and shopping on Christmas Eve? Yeah, don't do that.

Transport

We all know that driving into town is the best mode of transport when it comes to Christmas shopping, right?

Wrong, you idiot. I was just testing. Driving anywhere near the city or suburban shopping centres during the festive season is the worst thing you can do. Unless of course you actually enjoy sitting in traffic for hours on end.

Get the bus, DART, Luas or just walk. You'll thank me later.

Where to go?

As someone who always leaves Christmas shopping to the minute I've become a dab hand at recognising which places are easy to duck into and pick out a load of gifts at once.

There are plenty of smaller stores off the beaten track which offer quirky gifts that are sure to raise a smile on Christmas morning and keep the family entertained for the day.

One such location is Designist on George's Street which sells everything from card games to books to lovely little arty pieces. You can find more little independent shops like Designist right here.

On the larger end of the shop scale, Debenhams is another great spot to pick up fun novelty gifts for the whole family. I mean who wouldn't love this hot water bottle set or Darth Vader oven mitts?

What if you really don't have time?

While leaving everything to the last minute is nobody's fault but your own, beating yourself up about it isn't going to get you anywhere.

Like, if you had have been just a little bit more organised you wouldn't be in this mess but that's neither here nor there at this stage. Who am I to criticise?

If you feel that you literally won't have any time to get your shit together, fear not as there are a number of Irish websites which sell gas little gifts which are available at the click of a button.

"BUT WHERE???", we here you shout. We've already covered those kinds of gifts in this feature. Chill.

Now you've got no excuses. See you again next year for last-minute shopping tips.