Thank you to all the readers who joined us as we explored some of the wonderful opportunities to shop local this holiday season. Check out our previous 2025 lists: Your local holiday gift list (no shipping required), Local holiday gift list—kids edition! and Vintage books, house plants, tinned fish, ukuleles and more in East Lexington.

To wrap up our shopping for the season, we’re highlighting fun ideas for smaller gifts and stocking stuffers, including gift certificates.  

  • Stylish cashmere hats and lots of cozy mittens: you can never have too many hats and mittens in a New England winter! Lots of beautiful options at Crafty Yankee.
  • Ornaments: we found charming felted and glass ornaments at Crafty Yankee, Center Goods, Wilsons, and Seasons Four
  • Hot Chocolate and Marshmallows: a perfect duo ready to go for your holiday morning, or to save for sledding days. Liberty Sweets and Wilsons
  • Fidgets: our younger shoppers think that fidgets make a great gift for any age. Maxima
  • A perennial hot gift: Luxardo Maraschino Cherries. Elevate all of your holiday cocktails and mocktails (contains no alcohol). Berman’s
  • Bananagrams: the packaging is cute, the game is fun and portable. Maxima and Omar’s
  • A deck of nature meditation cards: for moments of quiet and calm after the busy, holiday season. House 403
  • Page-a-day calendars: with so much scheduling online and on screens, it’s fun to have the tactile experience of a paper calendar. This New York Times Cooking calendar would be appreciated by anyone who likes to cook, or just needs to get dinner on the table. Maxima
  • Boston Baked Beans: they’re festive, they’re fun, they’re kitsch and silly. Liberty Sweets
  • Nostalgic candies: push pops, ring pops, warheads are all appreciated by our younger shoppers and fun for their adults too. Liberty Sweets
  • Vinyl cut stickers: decorate water bottles, laptops, tablets. Our younger shoppers love to express their personalities with stickers. Fun Lexington stickers would please an older audience too. Lexington Visitors Center, Maxima, Center Goods
  • Earrings: You can find beautiful jewelry at Artinian Jewelers and Jewels From the Crown.  Crafty Yankee also has a wide selection of fine jewelry. If you’re looking for fun, novelty earrings and bracelets there is a great selection at Crafty Yankee.
  • Collectible cards: These were a staple of our gift giving for many years. From Pokemon to Magic the Gathering, find them all at Omar’s.
  • Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate: you can’t go wrong with chocolate. We’re big fans of Tony’s chocolate and the Taza winter collection. A curated box of their favorite bon bons from Liberty Sweets or MA France would make a special gift. Center Goods, Maxima, Liberty Sweets, MA France, Bermans, House 403 

As we pass the halfway point in December, don’t forget local gift certificates. You can support Lexington’s businesses while gifting a thoughtful, personalized experience. Any of the shops we’ve highlighted in this series would be perfect. Also to consider:

  • A restaurant gift certificate offers a fun night out, and we have so many excellent choices in Lexington. Maybe Revival for a coffee lover, Nouve for amazing pastries, the new Post 1917 for a special occasion, or Love at First Bite for their inventive cocktails.
  • A gift certificate to the Lexington Venue offers another fun night out, and would pair perfectly with a restaurant gift certificate.  

And don’t forget the tween and teen crowd: it’s such a rite of passage in Lexington to finally be allowed to walk or bike to the center. We’ll put some gift certificates in their stockings for their favorite hangouts:

  • Omar’s (including the Bistro and Pixel Paradise)
  • Maxima
  • Upper Crust
  • Coco
  • Rancantore’s
  • Fruitee Yogurt
  • Tatte
  • Mario’s
  • Lexington Venue

We’re so lucky to live in a vibrant community, full of local businesses and the wonderful people who run them. I hope you’ve had some time to enjoy all Lexington has to offer during your holiday shopping. Wishing everyone a very happy holiday! 

Join the Conversation

1 Comment

  1. Our local merchants are struggling, and they need your support if you want them to remain in Lexington. Remember these aren’t charities, they need your purchases to pay their rents and keep providing interesting merchandise, and to contribute to a vibrant, fun center experience.
    Please support local merchants, it benefits us all 🤗

    Reply
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