The business of Christmas

Holiday markets, festive lights, the panto, ice skating, trees and turkeys - Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without them. We talk to the seasonal business owners who work harder than Santa’s elves to keep the season bright

Gabriel Byrne, owner of Fantasy Lights Picture: Conor McCabe
Glow, Cork city’s winter festival, will attract 130,000 visitors

A time for living. A time for believing. A time for spending. This Christmas, the average Irish household will spend €2,654 - that is €870 more than any other month of the year, according to Retail Ireland’s 2017 Christmas Retail Monitor.

The monitor predicts an increase in total sales of more than €100 million, with sales over the Christmas season expected to top €4.5 billion, up ...