What's On Your List? It's Christmas Shopping Time!

If a certain Irish magic man is to be believed, we won't have to be dreamin' of a white Christmas this year. Thank Santa, says we, that leaves us with more time to focus our attention on other elements of the sparkle season, like, eh, family. And mass. And...who are we kidding - shopping!

Believe us, now is a good time to get your shop on. No matter how much you try to fight it, you know in your heart that the earlier you start preparing for Christmas the less of a mad thing you'll be when C-day finally arrives. Sure, 'tis the time of giving but you're allowed to treat yourself you know.

Here at Beaut HQ, we've been chatting about dream gifts. We've been lusting after Tom Ford's special gift sets for the packaging alone. The luxurious goodies inside do their bit to sway us too.

Collections include Private Blend - mini decanters of the best selling fragrances from the Private Blend line - a lip and nail set, a combo set with lips and a fragrance and the mother load - the bumper gift set holding eight lip colours and eight nail lacquers of your own choice. It costs a cool €632 but this kind of present is a bona fide investment, is it not?

And every Christmas warrants a great new gúna. You can't not think of sparkle and glitz at Christmastime so we think that buying a really good quality glamorous frock will serve you well. That's the thing about Christmas fashion, those party dresses never go out of style!

Christmas dinner is another big issue on our minds. You make lists and check them twice but it's hard to resist picking up that extra three boxes of Quality Street and those two crates of wine 'for visitors'. You know what, there's just no point in scrimping on the best and most important dinner of the year! Biggest turkey in the shop it is so and a mountain of brussels sprouts to boot. And you want everyone to have great craic so those crackers better be up to scratch!

What with all this rain and wind and cold, we're thinking ahead too. Sure we have Christmas to look forward to so that will distract us from the miserable weather for the rest of the year, but what about the cave of  misery and gloom that is January? A really gorgeous present for someone special would be a spa weekend somewhere fancy and relaxing.

You could go one up on that and arrange for a winter holiday. Skiing perhaps? Oh and the best thing about a skiing holiday is all the extras that come with it. A snow bunny isn't a snow bunny without a killer ensemble. We're thinking Victoria Beckham and her brood on the slopes. Yes, that could be us alright.

There's no denying that Christmas costs a pretty penny so there's good news for big spenders. Bank of Ireland have developed a unique credit card Payment Plan option where if you make a credit card purchase of €500 or more you could switch that amount to a low rate. It means that you can spread the cost of those bigger credit card purchases over 12 equal installments at a brilliantly low rate of 6.9% Annual Percentage Rate (APR) variable.  That means, a purchase of say, €580 works out at €50.09 per month for 12 months with a total cost of credit of €21.02.

So, how can you set it all up? It's easy!

1. Check if Payment Plan option is on your Bank of Ireland credit card (or get a classic credit card today.)

2. Pay for your over €500 item

3. Call 1890 251 251 before your next payment due date.

Learn more at bankofireland.com/paymentplan

Lending criteria, terms and conditions apply. Bank of Ireland is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland.