Christmas need not be a byword for over indulgence and inactivity. Seasonal gifts that help your nearest and dearest stay healthy are usually a welcome alternative to booze, biscuits and chocolates. Fiona Tyrrell reports
Whether it's the Christmas day stroll or a St Stephen's day hike - getting out and about is a great seasonal tradition. There are lots of gadgets, gizmos and clothes on the market which make ideal stocking fillers for walkers and ensures there are no excuses for the more reluctant strollers over the Christmas period.
Great Outdoors in Dublin expects to sell hundreds of pedometers, the tiny device that counts your steps, in the days running up to Christmas. They are great stocking fillers for walkers and gadget lovers.
Dunnes Stores is selling the nifty gizmos for €8. Sports shops such as Great Outdoors sell more complex versions, which tell you how many calories you have burned or have built-in safety alarms and are priced between €20 and €30.
For serious hikers, a walking pole, which cost from €30, or hill walking boots, priced from €135, are good gift ideas. A platypus - a soft water bottle for the rucksack with a tube to extend to the mouth - is also an idea for the dedicated hiker and costs around €20.
High-visibility gear for walkers or light-weight vapour jackets (modern parlance for windcheater) cost from around €30 and would suit walkers of all experiences. A mini i-pod is a great companion for any walker fond of long haul-strolls (prices start at around €250).
Get-away-from-it-all gifts
It's not often that healthy living and pampering combine, but when it does it's a great gift idea. For that special someone in your life, a break in one of Ireland's many secluded spas and retreat centres can be a gift of a lifetime.
A day at the spa in Brooklodge in Maccredin Village, Co Wicklow is a real treat and costs €250 for two treatments, access to the spa and lunch at the Strawberry Tree, Ireland's only certified organic restaurant. Two people can enjoy the spa's body, mind and soul package for two nights for €700.
For the more active, check out Delphi Mountain Resort and Spa in Connemara which offers a nice mix of spa luxury with the great outdoors. A two-night break costs €535 per person.
Dublin's Harvest Moon Centre on Baggot Street offers good deals for flotation, holistic massage, Indian head massage and reflexology.
A half-day pampering session comprising a one-hour holistic facial massage, a 40-minute back and neck massage and a one-hour flotation session costs €135.
Less about pampering and more about escaping: a gift voucher for a weekend of yoga at Galway Yoga Centre in Athenry is for someone who wants out of the rat race for a while. Cost is €175 for a weekend of yoga including food and lodgings.
Kitchen gadgets
Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without culinary gadgets. This year make sure your kitchen gifts are health-giving. A fruit juicer or smoothie maker is the ultimate in healthy gift giving.
Smoothies are the milkshakes of the new millennium and as well as being very tasty, they can be healthy too - as long as you avoid cream and they are not brought out late on a Saturday night to make vodka cocktails.
Smoothie makers mean you can blend and foam fruit into healthy drinks. Juicing is the extraction of juice from fruit leaving behind fruit fibre and pulp so you get the raw nutrition of the fruit or vegetable, which is quickly absorbed into the body. Either appliances are healthy additions to the kitchen. A Kenwood smoothie maker in Roches will cost around €42 and a juicer around €28.
A big seller this Christmas is likely to be celebrity chef Jamie Oliver's new invention - the Flavour Shaker - used for making up rubs, marinades and dressings.
A small ceramic ball in the shaker helps release the taste from herbs, spices, garlic, peppercorns or nuts (price €29.95 from Roches). Other healthy cooking options are the George Foreman Grill or a vegetable steamer.
Organic gifts
As consumers begin to worry more about the purity of their food, organic presents are always welcome. A healthy spin on a traditional Christmas gift, a nice bottle of organic wine to go with the turkey is always a welcome gift. Organic wine distributor Vendemia Wines in Kilkenny recommends Rioja Reserva 1999 priced at €15.85 or Chianti Casale 1999 €14.50, both of which will go nicely with your turkey.
Feelgood Organic Hampers in Booterstown, Co Dublin has a range of hampers crammed with traditional organic Christmas fare including pudding, teas, coffee, chocolate, cranberry sauce, chutney, olive and mulled wine spice, with prices starting at €75 and going up to €423.
A gift voucher for a weekly delivery of an organic box is a great idea if you are willing to really make a healthy statement. Absolutely Organic will deliver a weekly supply of fruit and vegetables to your door. Prices for weekly deliveries start at €15 for the high five box (five vegetables) and go up to €21.50 for lots of lovely juice-able fruit and vegetables. Some delicious organic smoked salmon is always a welcome gift - price around €5.99 for 100g of organic Umera smoked salmon from Purty Kitchen in Monkstown.
Alternative food gifts
When it comes to Christmas grub, healthy does not have to mean bland and boring.
There is a host of tasty gift ideas on the market for people who have food allergies, intolerances or want something on the healthier side of the seasonal spectrum. Galway-based company Moyglass makes some delicious wheat, dairy and sugar-free Christmas fare including a great Christmas cake, which is priced from around €10 and is available from Evergreen health food store in Galway. Blazing Salads on Drury Street in Dublin makes its own large and juicy mince pies which are wheat, sugar, yeast and dairy-free and are priced at €8.50 for six.
Sheridan's Cheese Mongers in Galway and Dublin will be happy to make up a cheese board or hamper for dairy-intolerant people from its large range of sheep and goats' milk cheese, with prices starting at €30 a kilo.
Why not buy someone a course of cookery classes at Café Fresh in the Powerscourt Centre in Dublin? Vegetarian cuisine is the order of the day and special diets, allergies and nutrition are an intrinsic part of each class. Cost is €175 for six classes.
New Year gifts
For a truly practical gift this Christmas, consider purchasing some detox products for family friends who are likely to over-indulge this festive season or some food supplements or exercise equipment to kick-start the New Year. A bottle of milk thistle, which is renowned for its ability to support and stimulate the liver, the organ primarily responsible for ridding the body of alcohol, could come in handy (price €7.95 for 30ml of Sona Milk Thistle). Naturalifes's Fructin tablets are a natural alternative to indigestion tablets and are aluminium and sodium bicarbonate-free (price €4.70 for a pack of 30). Designed to be taken at night, Flor Essence's 10-day Detox drink is ideal for reluctant de-toxers (price €25.38). For the more dedicated, Bioforce's Vogel Detox Box has four natural herb preparations which tackle the surplus of fat and alcohol in modern diet as well as toxins (price around €25).
For those reluctant to take lots of different supplements in the morning, MegaFlax, a food supplement in a sweet, nutty flavoured granulated powder for use on cereals, fruit drinks and meals, is a great idea. It combines Omega 3 flax, fibre and 20 plant nutrients and is the ideal way of kick-starting a healthy New Year (price €24 for one month's supply).
A new yoga mat is a good gift idea for yoga or pilates lovers. Boots has a nice yoga mat kit for €19.20. Boots also has a punch ball and gloves set for €40.25 and a Tae Kwon Do bag for €24.00