Buying Handmade for the Holidays

Bryant Park really sets the Christmas scene the best, what with the skating rink (The Pond) adjacent to the vendors and now a new enclosed restaurant near the beautiful library that overlooks both. There’s something magical about this calm rectangular space just blocks from Times Square craziness that never fails to cheer me up.

Holiday vendors NOT in a park, but that’s okay because it’s toasty warm inside Grand Central and like Bryant Park, it has that cheer-inducing quality despite the hustle and bustle. You can imagine the women in wide skirts, the men with top hats, the kids with wooden toys in hand, rushing through to catch a train somewhere for Christmas dinner.

If the same-old-same-old “Shops at Columbus Circle” leave you coming up empty, cross the crazy intersection that is Columbus Circle and check out the holiday market! (Note: the former American Craft Museum, now the Museum of Arts and Design, quite the handmade mecca, is also across the street!)

Treehouse is a quirky and tiny shop in Williamsburg that is part vintage store, part handmade designer showcase. And they LOVE owls! Remember that movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind? Some of Treehouse’s goods, including that blanket, were IN it!

Fred Flare has had a site for a while, but they have finally finally FINALLY opened a brick-and-mortar shop in Greenpoint. How they found all their pop culture, brightly-colored, weird stuff, I have no idea.

This is a more upscale handmade haven, kind of the opposite of Fred Flare when it comes to color and style, but when you’re looking for a tasteful grey bag, dainty earrings or simple journals, Cog & Pearl will hook you up.

Artez’n is made up of almost all New York designers, with a majority from Brooklyn. (Woot woot!) Products include tees, soap, sewer coasters, Brooklyn-y onesies, Coney Island images on glasses, Brooklyn Fudge and lots of other New York-ish items that New Yorkers would actually want to receive! (No tourist Statue of Liberty mini statues I mean!)