Happy Thanksgiving!
In the U.S., the day after Thanksgiving (Black Friday) signifies the official start of the holiday shopping season. In the spirit of keeping the holidays a little more handmade and small business and a little less mass produced and corporate, I’m sharing several holiday gift guides today.
Handmade gifts to buy
If you’re more pressed for time than money this holiday season, you may want to buy a handmade gift.
CRAFT magazine has a series of Holiday Gift Guides for 2011 which include Gifts Under $20 and pet gifts.
Etsy is an online craft marketplace with many great holiday gifts. If you are looking for sales, you can browse listings with Black Friday Etsy or Cyber Monday Etsy tags… but then you’d be wading through over 70,000 items. You can try a curated approach by checking out treasuries posted by Etsy members with Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Winter Gifts, Gifts for Her, or Gifts for Him tags. Or, you can read the daily Etsy crochet treasuries by Kathryn at Crochet Concupiscence. My local Etsy team, The {NewNew}, has even put together a series of holiday gift guides (for teachers, for teens, and for her).
Still overwhelmed? Here’s my short list of holiday Etsy picks.
- Check out the Crocheted Animals section in the Fresh Stitches shop or the Soft Sculpture etc section in the Cheezombie shop for awesome crocheted and knitted amigurumi.
- My favorite shops for men’s gifts (t-shirts that will actually be worn) are BRANDED and Vortex Trading Company.
- Unique and marvelous (more expensive) woodcrafts gifts for someone special can be found at rusticworker.
- Bottlehood has great glassware and jewelry made from upcycled bottles. They also offer gift certificates. A variety of “eco-fabulous nifty gifties” for kids and adults are available from Ivy Lane Designs.
Artfire is another online craft marketplace for handmade gifts, and you can view their Black Friday sales here.
Perhaps you prefer an in-person shopping experience. CRAFT magazine’s list of events and the Sunshine Artist website are great resources for finding holiday craft fairs. (My besties and I plan to wait until the last possible moment and then shop the Lyceum Holiday Market and Brooklyn Craft Central’s Holiday Market the Saturday before Christmas.)
Enjoy the second gift guide, and feel free to share your favorite handmade gifts to buy in the comments!