There are 26 days to Christmas, but we can be assured that every one of them will be a shopping day. Most will extend into shopping evenings, and opening hours may even push into the night for some enterprising stores, eager to keep their tills ringing in the Christmas cheer.
For parents, the pressure is increasing as the advertising industry reminds our tots that they need a talking, dancing Barney or a Bear in the Big Blue House.
Crisis will already have come to some homes where older children wanted one of the 8,000 PlayStation 2 consoles which made a fleeting visit to shops in the Republic last Friday, and which were sold out within an hour. More may be available before Christmas, but it's unlikely to be enough to satisfy demand.
With an average spend of between £100 and £200 per child, and some spending up to £500 (after all, PlayStation 2 costs £379.99 plus £50 a game), many parents are going into debt to ensure their children have a merry Christmas.
Unnecessary? Easy to say if you're not caught up in the frenzy. But parents worry their children's day will be ruined if they get a Steffi rather than a Barbie or an Ultracorp figure rather than an Action Man.
Many generic toys nowadays are just as good as the heavily marketed brand names, but it's not the actual toy the children want. In most cases, it's the advertised dream.
Two recent studies came up with opposing conclusions on the effect of advertising on children, with one study concluding it had little effect and the other saying advertising had an enormous impact.
Whether it's advertising, peer pressure or packaging, brand names dominate the toy market, and it can be very difficult for parents to resist the urge to splurge.
And what a splurge. The Irish toy market is worth more than £100 million annually, exclusive of computers and computer games.
More than 95 per cent of the toys are imported, with the vast majority made in China.
So it is possible that your child's dream Christmas has been manufactured cheaply.
But that cheapness comes at a very high cost to the many Asian workers who labour in appalling conditions.
Whatever about the misery of finding your credit card overdrawn in January, your bank account empty and the new Robodog in need of another injection of £10 worth of batteries, think about living in a factory dormitory which sleeps up to 12 people in a room about the size of a squash court. This space includes a toilet offering little or no privacy.
Many workers work a 10-hour day six days a week and find it difficult to live anywhere other than the dormitories provided by the factories.
Last week Trocaire and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions called on Irish shoppers to give workers in the toy industry a fair deal by using their consumer power this Christmas.
The vice-president of ICTU, Senator Joe O'Toole, said: "Many toy workers labour for long hours in hazardous conditions for very low pay, as little as £1.54 an hour. Our campaign calls on all companies to implement standards that will guarantee basic workers' rights, fair wages and safe conditions."
The campaign is targeting Hasbro, the producer of Pokemon products, among other toys; Mattel, maker of Barbie; and McDonald's "Happy Meal" toys.
All three companies have replied to the campaign by stating that they have strict codes of conduct in place.
Trocaire and ICTU are asking Irish shoppers to put a little extra effort into their Christmas shopping by letting the toy manufacturers know that they want to shop with a conscience.
The director of Trocaire, Mr Justin Kilcullen, explained that people should not actually boycott companies, because this could impact negatively on workers' livelihoods.
Instead, the two organisations are asking consumers to buy the toys and keep the receipt.
This can then be sent with one of the campaign postcards (available from Trocaire or ICTU) or a letter to the company expressing their concern.
"Tell them you want to be sure that their toys are not being produced by underpaid, overworked workers in dangerous conditions who cannot even organise for decent working conditions," the campaign urges.
There is evidence that this approach works, according to Justin Kilcullen.
So, how about putting those receipts to good use? The good feeling you get from posting them off may even alleviate some of the gloom which will have accrued from totting them up.
There are suggestions that some of us are totting too much. Last week the Director of the Office of Consumer Affairs embarked on a radio advertising campaign to promote price awareness and credit consciousness among consumers in the weeks leading up to Christmas.
Ms Carmel Foley warned consumers that credit-card spending could "harbour serious consequences both through the over-extension of credit limits and through possible interest and penalty charges later where balances are not cleared on time."
Her message is a timely one: "Don't shop till you stop - and think."