CRUELLA De Vil's wish for a coat of Dalmatian puppy fur could well be fulfilled if she comes to shop in Dublin this Christmas. The city at the centre of an economic boom offers to satisfy the most demanding consumer. But, as usual, the foot sore parent must compete with the reality of seasonal shopping before she or he can claim the prize of a Sony Playstation, a Buzz Lightyear, Calvin Klein underpants or outrageously priced running shoes in which the ungracious recipient will seldom, if ever, run.
In these closing years of the 20th century, only the deeply religious and the intensely naive rail against the commercialisation of Christmas; everyone else, especially parents of children under 15, is resigned to being a reluctant participant in the orgy.
The six-week period from the start of December to the end of the January sales is big business. The typical department store will sell more goods on Christmas Eve and the first day of the sale than in the whole month of February.
"The last three Christmases have been extremely good for the shops," says Mr Declan Martin, economic director of the Dublin Chamber of Commerce. "In the past they've been looking for Christmas to `save' the year, but since 1993 there's been annual growth in retail of 5 per cent, and that masks a Christmas growth of perhaps 10 per cent."
This year, he estimates, consumers in the Republic alone will spend £1.6 billion over the holiday. In Dublin, spending will probably reach £550 million.
A cocktail of economic statistics underscores the boom: There are more people in work, 130,000 of them, than this time three years ago, interest rates are at their lowest level since the 1970s.
In anticipation of these good times, foreign and domestic chainstores have spent recent months expanding; Boots, Dunnes, Debenhams, Argos, Next, Roches, Virgin. In Dublin this Christmas, consumers must cover an extra million square feet of retail space.
Weary parents might have known they were being set up for a special hit this year when Brown Thomas opened its Christmas shop, at the start of October.
To be fair, a great number of parents were ready for it.
"From the minute it opened, it took off. People were more organised than ever before this year. Some toys were sold out weeks ago," says Delores Delaney of Brown Thomas.
The parents of teenagers have not the energy even to raise an eyebrow. They have witnessed the unrelenting barrage of commercial pressure visited upon their children, and they, in turn, can name all the names: Marco Polo, Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein, Firetrap, Pepe, Demo pinstripe jeans.
"He wants the Calvin Klein underpants - listen to this now - because the elastic band at the top says Calvin Klein, and then he can pull them up above his jeans and not wear a belt," one bewildered father explains.
But the ones with the older children are getting off lightly; their youngsters do not have that ultimate court of appeal against their claims of being penniless, Santa Claus.
Santa knows not the price of anything, and his generosity is world famous. Santa Claus never denies a child.
And so his agents hit the streets, searching for toys and games that they can barely pronounce, battling with other elves in mufti as stocks dwindle.
Buzz Lightyear, the `Toy Story' tie-in that is in such short supply that adults are willing to telephone shops in the Middle East and have it FedExed to Ireland, Sony and Sega play stations for computer games, at close to £200 a pop, The Spice Girls, despite their bad press about being fans of Mrs Thatcher and cocaine.
Relief comes only in familiarity. Parents are calmed to learn that some of the toys from their own youth retain popularity: Barbie and Sindy, train sets, dolls' houses, Action Man and Levis jeans are still on the lists.
But then there are the dalmatians. More than a hundred of them.
Last weekend, Disney released the remake of its cartoon classic 101 Dalmatians in Britain, and it immediately broke seasonal box office records. In three days, the movie took £2.4 million in receipts.
The film also broke box office records in the United States; the Irish distributors are convinced that Irish children, and their parents will be unable to resist the charms of the 280 spotted dogs, and Glenn Close as the wicked Cruella De Vil.
In some ways, Christmas has always been this way. Throughout the 1980s, there was little or no overall growth in retail sales, yet the cash registers always rang non-stop throughout December.
"No matter how poor people are, they will always spend at Christmas," observes the Chamber of Commerce's Mr Martin, "even if they have to scrimp and save for the rest of the year".
But the boomtown feel to Dublin this year is for real.
People from outside Dublin, who traditionally shopped in Dublin in early December, but stopped during the 1980s and early 1990s are reportedly back. Some have been tempted by the new malls on the outskirts of Dublin, like the Blanchardstown Centre, which have free parking, easy road access and a wide selection of shops to choose from.
Also, Dublin people are choosing to shop locally rather than travel to Belfast. This is in part because electronic goods are now almost as cheap in the Republic as in the North, but also because many of the chain stores that formed Belfast's attraction - Boots, Argos, Debenham's - have now opened in the capital.
And Northerners, who traditionally travel south to visit shops such as Clerys and Brown Thomas, continue to arrive.
But at Clerys, where 12 months ago the general manager, Mr Tom Rea, declared 1995 the best in 10 years, there is no air of exuberance.
This year, Mr Rea says, the `curiosity money' has gone to the new shopping centres: "People are ringing me up from England and asking me where is downtown Blanchardstown!"
"It will be hard to match last year," he continues. "But the young, earning population - the ones who are in work and have money - are having a real go at Christmas. For example, Miss Selfridge has been in Clerys for eight years, and we broke all records last week."
And amidst all the clamour and the heat of battle, parents and retailers alike keep one fact to the fore of their minds: By January 8th all the children will be back in school, and this will be over for another year. So why not enjoy it!