If there were ever a year for supporting local businesses this would be the one. The East’s annual Guide to East Coast Christmas Gift Giving is your chance to give a gift twice as we help you to find a locally-sourced treasure. Every one of these gifts means not only spreading a little holiday cheer with your loved ones but also supporting a small business.
Here’s the 2020 list of gift items we’ve put together from businesses around Atlantic Canada. Take your time perusing them. For every item listed, there’s a whole store load more that might tickle your fancy!
For the Bibliophiles
Notebooks and Sealing Wax Stamps by The Lost Book
Eve of Fredericton’s The Lost Book shop is filling all the needs of those who love the craft of writing by hand and sending letters the old fashioned way. Offering a wide selection of unique, customizable notebooks bound in the covers of classic stories as well as other originally designed covers, The Lost Book is the perfect shop for the lover of everything literary. In addition, The Lost Book is selling sealing wax along with a variety of wax stamps, which would make a great gift for the handwritten letter writer in your life.
Cost: $10 – $40
Where to buy: The Lost Book Etsy page HERE.
Dirty Birds by Morgan Murray
Morgan Murray has written something between a coming-of-age story and encyclopedia of Canadiana with his tale of the curiously named Milton Ontario, a young man and his quest to escape the flatness of Saskatchewan to become a poet and ladies man in the city of Montreal, just like his hero, Leonard Cohen.
Cost: $21
Where to buy: the Breakwater Books online shop HERE.
Hobtown Mystery Stories by Kris Bertin & Alexander Forbes
Combining the nostalgic sleuthing of Barnaby Boys with the off-kilter realities of David Lynch, Hobtown Mysteries is a graphic novel series ripe with intrigue. With engrossing writing by Kris Bertin and perfectly styled art by Alexander Forbes, the tone is as retro as it is unique. A masterclass in unnerving playfulness, this is easily one of the strongest Canadian comic titles of the past decade.
Cost: $20
Where to buy: the Conundrum Press online shop HERE.
Notebooks by Mule Mother
Whatever the blank book need, Halifax’s Mule Mother has a hand-bound book for it. If you have someone on your list who could use a journal, sketchbook, planner, guest book, recipe book, birthday book or photo album, Mule Mother has it. All books are beautifully bound in fabric or leather and come in a variety of page styles.
Cost: $15 – $65
Where to buy: the Mule Mother online shop HERE.
The Hush Sisters Book by Gerard Collins
In The Hush Sisters, Newfoundland writer Gerard Collins spins the tale of two estranged sisters who must decide what to do with their family home after the passing of both of their parents. Set in St. John’s, the story has all of the dark secrets, spirits from the past and strange events a reader could hope for in a contemporary gothic novel filled with psychological suspense. This book would make a perfect gift for the bookworm in your life with an interest in local writing and settings.
Cost: $23
Where to buy: the Breakwater Books online shop HERE.