This post is sponsored by Kilkenny Design. As always, every word and opinion is my own.
Every year, somewhere around mid-November, I feel it start. The countdowns, the flash sales, the gentle pressure everywhere you look to buy more, and faster. I’ve always loved choosing gifts for the people closest to me, and I like taking my time with it, because a gift is one of the ways I show them how much they mean to me.
This year, I want to lean into that even more. Not a no-gifts Christmas (I love giving presents far too much for that), but a slower, more sustainable one. Fewer things, chosen with more care. The kind of gifts that get worn, used, and loved for years rather than quietly moved to a drawer by February.
For me, a sustainable Christmas has come down to buying less and buying better. Choosing pieces that are made to last. Choosing things with a story behind them. And, wherever I can, choosing Irish Christmas gifts from Irish designers and makers, supporting our talented homegrown brands.
That’s what brought me to Kilkenny Design’s Christmas collection this year. Kilkenny Design is an Irish, family-run business that has championed Irish makers for over 60 years, and its Christmas collection is a thoughtful mix of design, craft, and heritage. Two ranges in particular felt like they belonged in a slower Christmas: their Aran knitwear and Orla Kiely collections.
aran jumpers and sweaters: an irish gift with a story
I spent time on the Aran Islands learning Irish, and if you’ve ever been, you’ll know the islands stay with you. The stone walls crisscrossing the fields. The wind that seems to come from every direction all at once. The feeling that time moves a little differently out there. It’s hard to look at an Aran jumper now without thinking of it.
what do aran sweater stitches mean?
The Aran jumper grew out of that landscape. Traditionally knitted in báinín (undyed, creamy wool), it was made to keep island families warm through Atlantic winters, and each stitch was said to carry its own meaning. The cable is often linked to fishermen’s ropes, the honeycomb to hard work and its reward, and the diamond to hopes of wealth and good fortune. You might also hear that every family had its own pattern. Historians think that part is more romance than record, but I love that the stitches have gathered stories along the way.
aran knitwear from irish makers, old and new
The women’s Aran jumpers, sweaters, and cardigans at Kilkenny Design bring together a few Irish knitwear names, including Kilkenny Design’s own label, West End Knitwear, and IrelandsEye. West End Knitwear has a lovely family story of its own. It goes back to 1856, when Kate O’Shea started selling her hand-knitted woollens, and carried on through her granddaughter, Molly Cullen, who founded West End Knitwear in County Kildare in 1957. Across the range, the jumpers and cardigans lean on those traditional cable patterns, in wools and colours that feel right at home in a modern wardrobe.
Kilkenny Design’s own Aran pieces have a story too. They’re part of its Heritage Collection, its first-ever own-brand label, launched in 2023 for the company’s 60th year. The designs were developed in-house in Ireland, with colours, stitches, and patterns taken from Kilkenny Design’s own archives of the 1960s and 70s.
As a gift, an Aran jumper or cardigan is about as far from throwaway as it gets. It’s the jumper you reach for before a chilly stroll by the sea, the cardigan you pull on over your pyjamas on Christmas morning, and the one that ends up being borrowed (and reluctantly given back). It’s a gift that will be worn for decades, and maybe passed on after that. If there’s someone abroad you’re thinking of this year, there are few Irish gifts that feel more like a little piece of home.
orla kiely: irish design for everyday life
If the Aran jumper is heritage you can wear, Orla Kiely is design you get to live with every day.
Orla grew up in Dublin, studied textile design at the National College of Art and Design, and worked on wallpaper and fabric in New York before doing her master’s at the Royal College of Art in London. In 1995, she and her husband, Dermott Rowan, started the brand with a small collection of bags and accessories, full of bold colour at a time when fashion was mostly wearing black.
Then, in 2000, came the Stem. That simple, graphic leaf is now one of the most recognisable prints around, and the story behind it is really lovely. It’s based on a rowan leaf, a quiet nod to Dermott’s name. It’s been reworked in new colours and scales almost every season since, which says a lot about good design – it doesn’t need replacing, just revisiting. Last year, the Design & Crafts Council Ireland marked her career with a retrospective, Orla Kiely: A Life in Pattern, at the National Design and Craft Gallery in Kilkenny. It feels fitting that she’s one of several Irish designers Kilkenny Design supported early in their careers.
What I love about Orla Kiely gifts is that they’re the “good” version of something you’d use anyway. A mug for slow morning sips of coffee. A tote that faithfully carries your commute necessities day after day. A cushion that makes a corner of the sitting room a little brighter. You can browse the Orla Kiely range at Kilkenny Design for yourself to see exactly what I mean. These are the pieces that get used daily and still make you smile years later, which, to me, is exactly the point.
buy less, buy better: a slower, more sustainable christmas
I’m not going to pretend I’ve cracked the code to a perfectly slow Christmas. There will still be a last-minute dash at some point, and it’s probably going to be foliage-related. I wrap my presents in brown paper and twine (it’s become my signature wrapping style at this point), and I always, always forget to cut the greenery to finish them. It’s almost become a Christmas morning tradition: me, wandering the garden in my pyjamas, scissors in tow, taking snippets from the holly bushes and hedges and stowing them safely in my dressing gown pockets before we pack the car to visit family for the day.
But I’ve found that when I start with fewer, better things, the whole season feels gentler. Less rushing, more thinking about the person I’m actually buying for. So the only last-minute trip I plan on making this year is to the bottom of the garden, not into town.
If you’re looking for Christmas gifts in Ireland and want to shop local, that’s exactly the kind of gifting Kilkenny Design makes easy. Everything feels considered, and so much of it carries a bit of Ireland with it, whether it’s a stitch pattern with roots on the islands or a leaf print drawn by a Dublin designer.
If you’re starting your own list of Irish gifts for Christmas, take a slow wander through the Kilkenny Design Christmas shop. Make a cup of tea, take your time, and choose something that will still be loved long after the wrapping paper’s gone.