Gifts

• Ukraine-Made Items on Etsy Surprisingly high-quality, affordable gift-worthy stuff.
• Ukrainian Tea Party Monthly Subscription Box Could brighten up the recipient's life a bit.
• Veteran Owned Business Directory Our (United States) military is something to be proud of, and the veterans are - generally speaking - the best of us. Give this a try for buying gifts for those on your list and you might be pleased.
• Vanilla Gift A gift card that functions like a debit card, meaning that the recipient can use it anywhere, for anything.
• Dolly Parton's Imagination Library Free books for kids in certain areas; check to see if it's available in yours.
• Theodore Gray Products Chemistry educational stuff that is interesting for even non-chemists and non-nerds. Dangerous. Fun.
• Archie McPhee Brides Cake Topper and Grooms Cake Topper 10/20/23 Wasn't sure where else to put this but it's neat.
• Exploratorium Store A science museum store.
• MSI Chicago Store Another science museum store.
• California Science Center Another science museum store.
• Science Museum of Minnesota Store Another science museum store.
• New York Botanical Gardens Store
• Ivory Paper Company All-In-One Planner It might be pricey but it is one heck of a gift. It contains many delightful surprises and is hands down the best planner I've ever had. I used to plan out the year with like 4 to 12 different notebooks, sketching in all the details by hand. This saves a lot of time.
• Native-Owned Businesses I tell ya, you could probably get me anything from any one of these and I'd love it. Why? Because in my personal experience (limited though it is) anything produced by a Native-owned business is like 95% guaranteed to be extremely high quality and the opposite of a ripoff, unlike most of what you'd find in the megamalls of my 90s youth. I do not know why that is. All I know is that I'm shocked so few people even know about this.
• Renfest Artisans If you've ever been to one of these, you know. I have therefore I save my money til I visit.
• Ten Thousand Villages It's fair trade stuff. Mostly smol items.
• Bonanza A substitute for eBay, which is now infamous for screwing over both sellers and customers. Haven't tried Bonanza yet. Incidentally if you need to re-sell some extra stuff you have lying around you might... MIGHT... get a fair price on the sale here.
• Craigslist Another substitute for eBay and locally based. I've had some serious good luck finding things like PS1s on here. However, I had to drive and go pick 'em up hours from where I was at. And I've actually met a couple people who have had shady experiences based on Craigslist. Don't even pretend Craigslist is safe. It's not.
• Ebid Another replacement for eBay but more based in Europe and the UK
• Etsy Because there is no other alternative marketplace where you can reliably get high quality products from microbusinesses. If you need a gift for someone or something specific, you usually go here, and that's just how it is. High fees for sellers and for buyers mean Etsy pockets more of a cut than they should, and the businesses have to charge more than they would otherwise. I hope some other company comes along soon. I did however get my husband's wedding ring and my wedding dress from here and they both were exactly what I was looking for. In fact if you want basically anything that would be considered "luxury goods" such as perfume, bath and body products, commissioned stuff, fancy costumes or dresses, clothing, quilts, or knitwear, getting it here means it's probably going to be high quality and also not nearly as exploitative as the usual sweatshop labor-produced megamall stuff.
• Check your local farmer's markets, farms, U-pick places, roadside farm stands, local fairs, RenFests and state fairs. These often have great businesses that don't have a huge budget for marketing/ads and therefore too often fall through the cracks. You provide the extra legwork to find them and are rewarded with excellent quality. Never mind. Rural places seem to mostly be full of antivaxxers. Shame.
• Old World Christmas Christmas ornaments. Made from blown glass and filled with silver. These are family heirlooms and great gifts for people you love.
• Archie McPhee A toy store selling strange and funny toys.
• LL Bean Link takes you to their "made in America" section, which is actually kind of hard to find on their main website. They sell really nice comfy winter gear.
• Wines For Mothers Nonalcoholic wines. This link takes you to their organic and vegan wines section. If you use Amazon pay, and have Amazon Prime, then it seems to have free shipping.
• Baidyky Embroidered pillows, Christmas stockings, dog beds, dog blankets, and more, from Ukraine
• Becky Bella Baskets Gift baskets and assorted gifts
• Sundance Catalog Added 10/17/23. Affordably priced artisan-made goods. Kind of like Ten Thousand Villages but with more variety. Decidedly Western flair for a lot of the outfits, if you want to look both stylish and like a cowgirl or cowboy this is a good place. It's obvious the items are handcrafted with care.
• Vermont Country Store It's been lurking in the big box store section, but it has a lot of good gifts too.

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