Home Gift Meccas

This week we’ve got nothing but gift ideas to get you started on holiday shopping for Christmas, and help you with LAST minute shopping for Hanukkah. Today we’re going to focus on the gift offerings in our favorite home catalogs.

The first one is Wisteria. Known for its reproduced antique furniture — perfect for Funs and Organics — they also have classic accessories that all types can and should stretch their natural preferences to use in their home. The quality of their stuff is on par with Pottery Barn and Crate and Barrell, but a more antique feel. This year, their holiday gift offerings are pretty darn cool. This morning I was tempted to buy everything for all the ladies on my list right then and there. Pretty necklaces and sweet home stuff.

Next up is Restoration Hardware. One Christmas, back in the early oughts when everyone still had lots of cash, Kelly and I went out to the Short Hills Mall and bought almost everything we needed at Restoration Hardware. Back then we were still buying presents for our cousins then too! Yeah, we was flush! And now of course things are different, but there are still affordable and fun “toys” for grownups at Restoration Hardware come holiday time. Plus, I still have and use decorations I bought there for my first Christmas in this house eight years ago, so the stuff holds up. However, I just checked their prices and MOST of the stuff is out of my price range. On the other hand I think I found something cool for my dad, so, it’s worth a look see.

I was impressed right away with West Elm. It’s the “modern” furniture store owned by Williams-Sonoma which also owns Pottery Barn. (I liked some of the stuff at Pottery Barn, but only the over $100 category.) There are lots of sweet trinkets and goods for the home, modern holiday decor, and what’s even better? They have a bunch of gifts that if you buy them they will donate part of the money to St. Jude’s, one of my favorite charities. It’s a kids’ hospital that works miracles for little kids with terrible and often terminal illnesses. Also, their price point rocks and the quality is the same as Pottery Barn. So definitely check it out. 

Now, just so you don’t think I’m randomly going through all the home catalogs I get, these companies actually did go to the trouble of getting and gathering gifts that makes sense and are cool for Christmas. How do I know? Well I’m a bit of a catalog addict (Organics tend to be) and I know all of their regular year round offerings. And these holiday gift ones are different. Also, I checked out Crate and Barrel and their gift ideas are kind of lame. So I won’t even give you a link.