Chocolate selection boxes are also popular as gifts at Christmas. After Christmas Day St Stephen's Day would be marked by the visiting of wren boys to homes to collect money for the "wren party". It was traditional for Christians to fast on St Stephen's Day in honour of the saint's martyrdom. Both Ireland and Northern Ireland have the tradition of Christmas mummers' play, similar to but different from the wren boys; participants would cite rhymes in exchange for "treats" in the two weeks leading up to Christmas. Christmas celebrations in Ireland finish on 6 January, variously known as Women's Christmas (Nollaig na mBan), Little Christmas or Epiphany, with people taking down their Christmas decorations. The period between Christmas day and Little Christmas was known as "between the two Christmases" and was a popular time for matchmaking as it was traditionally a period of leisure. It was commonly believed that only snow that fell during this period would stay on the ground. On New Year's Eve 1961 television came to Ireland. Homecoming Adult children returning to their home was customary over the Christmas period, usually returning on Christmas Eve. Those who had emigrated generally sent gifts or money back, often referred as the "American letter". Since the 1980s both Ireland and Northern Ireland have seen an increase in the number of Irish and British emigrants returning to the island for the Christmas period. Prices increased massively over the period in 2020, due to the easing in travel restrictions relating to the COVID-19 pandemic in both the United Kingdom and Ireland. Christmas spend In 2015 a survey it was found that 44% will have sufficient money in their monthly income to pay for Christmas, 23% are likely to dip into their savings, while almost half of those surveyed (45%) will have to borrow money to cope. The last 33% of all the people are unknown off their shopping spend. The big traditional Christmas shopping day used to be 8 December, when many schools would close for the Catholic Feast of the Immaculate Conception and people from rural areas would head to the towns and cities to do their Christmas shopping. The tradition appears to have begun in the 1940s, when the department store Clerys, under the new management of Denis Guiney, offered a refund on their customers' train tickets if they spent more than £5 in the store. With the advent of