Move aside, Roses. Shove up, selection box. To our mind, the tin of Cadbury s chunks could be the new choice for the family Christmas chocolate box. It s a simple selection of three classics - plain Dairy Milk, Caramel and Whole Nut - in a satisfying chunk. One tin may not be enough. SC Cadbury s Dairy Milk Chunk Tin, €17, available nationwide
Necessity: Heavenly heroes
Irish jewellery brand 7th Heaven s new line, Love Collection: Mummy & Me, is a set of natural rose-quartz bracelets with gold-plated hearts. Adult-sized, €35; child-sized, €30. LH See 7thheaven.ie
Notion: Kids corner
Nothing is ever what it seems! Please remember that, folks, as you flick through magazines or scroll through Instagram.
Recently, I was part of a brilliant new Dove campaign called Skin Unfiltered to launch its new range of body washes. I posted unfiltered pics of myself on Insta with no make-up on; I had actual pores and peach fuzz - and if you look closely enough, scars. Shock, horror!
Instagram is full of filtered faces with everyone using face-altering apps -myself included.
It has become so normal for me to edit my pics before I post them, but I remember the first time someone edited a photo of me on their phone - I thought I looked absolutely ridiculous, like I should be in Madame Tussauds.
In Central European folklore, Krampus is a goat-demon who punishes misbehaving children at Christmas. He is Santa s dark mirror, the Horned God of the Witches; fanged, with a long pointed tongue that he wraps around naughty little children. A seven-feet horror on cloven hoofs, Krampus comes with chain and bell and a bundle of birch sticks for hitting. Krampus is a Christmas figure I can understand. In fact, I know him well; this personal punisher comes to stay every year. Once I had a Christmas where we ate warmish turkey off glassish hospital plates. It wasn t hospital turkey, it had travelled from home in repurposed polystyrene to the hospital where Mum was. There were potatoes and stuffing and the rest. I had not helped to cook it, I spent the day joylessly watching Gavin and Stacey from the beginning to the end - I didn t want to be left alone with Christmas. I didn t want to think about potatoes, stuffing, the rest, until I had to - until they were on a cold plate balanced on
Surely it s an impossible task to retrieve any positive stories from the dumpster fire that was 2020? Not so! We managed to derive joy from ingenuity, perseverance, and wildly salacious music videos. Here, Sheena McGinley counts down a mix of the positive events and WTF instances that brought a smile to our faces this year…
12 FUNGIE FINDING HIS TRIBE
Starting this list with something that devastated a community if not the entire country is peak 2020, but there was beauty in our mutual agreement that Fungie hadn’t become fish food somewhere in the Atlantic. Instead, the country opted to believe that the 45-year-old Dingle Dolphin had met a pod of like-minded mammals and headed off with them for an extended frolic.