Holiday shopping… I used to hate it. The crowds, the ghastly malls with horrible parking, the stress and pressure of it all. But then last year, I had so much fun challenging myself to do most of it by bike. This year, I swapped the bike for the baby and returned downtown with a new challenge in mind: buy everything local and made by artists in the community or from the small businesses dotting our quaint Main Street.
I was in part inspired by a friend of mine who’s decided to have a ‘China-free Christmas‘ and have been looking to support local fare as much as possible. (If you don’t live in a town with a thriving ‘downtown’ that has shops selling independent and local products, check out Etsy for the online version!)
With C. in the Baby Björn (I love this thing! more on this in a later post), I went downtown to check out the local businesses. Although I live in a small town, it has a great local arts community in part due to the university that resides here, and there are plenty of places to visit for locally made gifts. I would love to show you all the lovely treasures I found but that would spoil the surprise for the recipients, who might be stopping by the blog between now and Christmas. So you can just take my word for it: lovely, lovely things were found!
One of our last stops was the small art gallery that not only has a wonderful gift shop but also regularly exhibits different artists and their work. The upstairs is currently hosting a festival of trees exhibit, with Christmas trees decorated by the many different local businesses in town. Of course we had to take a detour from our shopping to check it all out…
My favorite tree was the cupcake tree but that’s only because I’m somewhat (ok, very much) addicted to the cupcakes from the cupcake shop downtown. I thought C. would be loving the tree exhibit since it was all sparkly and shiny and bright, all things that babies like, but I guess she was liking her nap even more. You can’t argue with nap time.
C. did wake up for our next stop though: the photography exhibit in the downstairs portion of the gallery. We walked around, took in the beautiful photographs, chose our favorites, and then headed back out to finish crossing off our gift list. I honestly can’t say I’ve enjoyed holiday shopping this much in the past, but seeking out creative and unique gifts made by people in our community, taking in the exhibits at the local gallery, and walking through our cute downtown made it a day worth savoring.
Happy Holidays, everyone! Support local this holiday season! ♥
I share this philosophy of shopping. All year round. It’s better for you, for the others and for the planet and plus…it’s fun and more rewarding :)
P.S: your daughter is so cute!
Adorable photos and her little shoes! Ah. That sounds like a fun shopping experience. I’m just trying to buy less this year as I don’t have the money and there’s no sense in spending money I don’t have and racking up a credit card bill.
What a great trip! I went today to a Christmas Art Fair and picked up some amazing cards, tags and small, beautifully made gifts for my friends and family. It meant so much more, chatting to the people that made them themselves, down the road from us…
Did you cut your hair . . . ?!?
I did! I donated about 12 inches to Locks of Love :) It was time for a change.
Oh my gosh, I have always been envious of your beautiful hair . . but you look gorgeous!
Yay for local! I am basically done Christmas shopping too, took care of everything at the 2 craft sales so far. Then, there is another biggie craft fair this Friday and I feel confident that I’ll be all wrapped up. Ditto sentiments on the local store store. If I’m going to by awesome new books for Dexter, why wouldn’t I go to the “Edmonton” place instead of the Chapters?
All other gifts are going to be home-made things.
S*
Big Woot Woot to local midwestern businesses! We are also keeping it local and simple this holiday – and making gifts whenever we can (with the kiddo’s participation). Homemade holiday decor as well.
Bikes and local, independent businesses are two of my favorite things. My husband and I own a bike shop in Chicago and we carry Po Campo bags! Great post. I’ll share it on twitter @LitInd.
My husband and I did something similar at “Flannel Friday” in downtown Montpelier, VT the day after Thanksgiving. The crowds were definitely much more on our level and it was so nice to see all the local stores crowded with shoppers. Our daughter also took a nap, so she will be so surprised on Christmas morning!
Where did you get the cute sweater for C. ? We are looking for baby sweaters!
Morning c, the sweater is from a garage sale this past summer. I get most of her clothing at garage sales, thrift stores, or consignment shops. They never really wear them out, do they? The stuff I find at these places always seem in such good condition and sell for mere pennies (more or less). Sorry I couldn’t be of more help though!
S.
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Thanks for the inspiration, S.! You’ve inspired me to do an all-local Christmas, too, supplied by vendors and artists located in new new home town of Oklahoma City. Aside from all the good it does for local entrepreneurs, it’ll save me the horror of the mall parking lot.
Happy Holidays!
Yay, sounds wonderful! Happy (local) shopping!