Gift Guide 2008

[November 26th, 2008]

Happy Holidays! Or relatively happy, anyway.

When I began work on this guide in August we were living in a different world. The Dow Jones was still above 10,000, Sarah Palin was still just a little-known governor and Iceland was still better known for Björk than bankruptcy.

You might say I shopped through the drop.

So why should you bother reading this, the first of our two holiday Gift Guides, when shopping at all seems like a losing proposition? That’s like asking, “Should I still drink spiked eggnog and stumble down Peacock Lane gawking at the lights if I don’t believe in Santa Claus and/or am Jewish?” The answer to both queries, Virginia, is: yes. Unless you possess the talent and skill to make gifts for all of your loved ones, you’ll still have to buy a few presents this year. So you might as well shop smart: Of the 86 items in this guide, many are made locally (hooray!), sustainably (huzzah!) or both, and almost all are available from local, independent retailers. To minimize the impact on your wallet, most of the gifts we’ve picked cost less than $30.

And even if you can’t afford to buy anything at all this year, isn’t it still fun to look at sweet stuff you’ll wanna pick up when Wall Street crawls out from under the bed? Doesn’t everyone need a flogger made from recycled inner tubes?

So hoist the wassail and get ready to covet. Salud!

­—Ben Waterhouse

^Bonus Slideshow Action!

Throughout the guide, you'll find our gift suggestions repackaged in eye-catching slideshows. If you need inspiration without all the reading, just sit back and let the ideas come:

Slideshows courtesy of

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