Living in Ireland: Christmas in Retail

For my friends and family living in the United States, I thought it would be fun to show you how Irish retailers are getting into the Christmas spirit this season.

These are photos I’ve snapped with my phone while I’m out and about – sometimes in the store, sometimes just window shopping. Please excuse the glare, the awkward angles and the occasional appearance of my reflection.

Meadows and Byrne is a Pottery Barn-like store. I will take one of everything.

Meadows and Byrne is an Irish company with 12 stores around the country.

This is a store window in a men’s suit shop that I walk past quite regularly, but I have not ventured inside.

Here’s a random gift shop I ran across recently. It’s amazing what you can find when you turn right instead of your usual left out of the train station.

I cropped out the green apron on the left because it had a naughty word and this is a family blog, dang it! The Irish do like to swear. A lot. They know they like to swear though, so sometimes they change the vowels on 4-letter words to make it seem nicer.

I thought this dress display was quite clever. It definitely caught my eye.

This is, obviously, a children’s clothing store. It’s located in a shopping mall, of sorts, where I go when I want to shop at a full-sized grocery store. It’s also where we bought the kids a change of clothes on our first night in Ireland when the airline lost our bags.

Right next to the children’s clothing store was this window display for a men’s clothing shop.

It made me laugh.

You can see my “big” grocery store reflected in the background.

This is the store window for a Danish retailer called Sostrene Grene, which I believe means the Sisters Green.

The next three photos were taken at a place called Powerscourt House and Gardens.

I’ve heard about this place since we moved here, but I always thought people were saying Pariscourt instead of Powerscourt. My ear for the Irish accent has improved greatly, but it still fails me sometimes.

Powerscourt House and Gardens is very old. The 68-room mansion was completed in 1741.

For you Downton Abbey fans, it was mentioned in an episode – or the family who originally owned it was mentioned.

The above and below photos are from the Garden Center on the property grounds. There’s also a golf course, hotel, gardens, waterfall and more.

A friend and I stopped for a scone with clotted cream at the cafe at Powerscourt House and Gardens and this beautiful scene greeted us on the way in. My kids would love this.

With a strong Catholic heritage and little religious diversity in Ireland, my impression is that retailers are not shy about promoting a “Merry Christmas” message over a “Happy Holidays” message. December has only just begun and it’s been fun to see the festive messages going up and the towns and stores transforming themselves for the season. We are happily soaking it all in.