Irish consumers are expected to spend over €4.9bn over the Christmas season. The latest Retail Ireland Christmas Retail Monitor shows that the figure is up from €4.75bn in 2018. Households will fork out around €2,800 in shops this December, around €940 more than any other month of the year. "Christmas remains a really important time for retail, many doing about 30% of their annual trade in a six-week period," said Retail Ireland Director, Arnold Dillon. "The sector supports around 300,000 workers. These are workers spread right across the country in every village, town and city so it's a real jobs intensive sector "A positive Christmas for retail is a really positive Christmas for jobs right across the economy."