The Best Places to Shop Small for Holiday Gifts in New York City

With near constant headlines about supply chain issues and shipping delays, there’s never been a better time to get off the internet and do your holiday shopping IRL. Plus, independent stores took a serious hit during pandemic-induced closures—so what better way to support (and contribute to) their survival than by patronizing them for all of your gift-giving needs?

The number of high-quality local shops in New York City is staggering, making it a challenge to narrow down our must-visit list for the 2021 season—but here’s our attempt. All of these Dwell-approved stores have at least one brick-and-mortar outpost, and they offer products ranging from art books and vintage furniture to plants and ceramics, so we guarantee you’ll be able to find something for everyone on your list.

Fishs Eddy

889 Broadway, Manhattan

A tabletop mainstay for more than 35 years, Fishs Eddy is the perfect place to go when you’re looking for a gift for that person who is *impossible* to shop for. While the storefront—founded and owned by Julie Gaines and David Lenovitz—started with (and still sells) vintage restaurant dishes and glassware, the Fishs Eddy originals decked with charming illustrations and playful sayings are truly irresistible. Pick up a rainbow-embroidered dish towel emblazoned with "Everyone’s a little bit gay" for your newly out niece, or grab an RBG mug for your grandma. When in doubt, go for the cityscape series—no one can resist a bowl wrapped in the Manhattan skyline.

Coming Soon

53 Canal Street, Manhattan

From kaleidoscopic handblown glasses and terrazzo-like cutting boards made from colorful scrap material to muppet pillows and nude top planters, everything you’ll find at Coming Soon surprises and delights. Owners Helena Barquet and Fabiana Faria curate and constantly change the selection of goods, which they source through personal relationships and collaborations with makers like ceramicist Farrah Sit of Light + Ladder, textile studio Cold Picnic, and home goods designer Anna Karlin.

Astoria Bookshop

31-29 31st Street, Astoria

When you don’t know what to gift, a book is usually the answer, and the extremely well-read staff at Astoria Bookshop can help you find the right one, whether you’re shopping for your restaurant owner uncle, eight-year-old nephew, or music-loving neighbor. Since they opened in 2013, owners Lexi Beach and her partner Connie Rourke have continually catered to their diverse community’s wants and needs, growing their stock list based on requests and ethical considerations (Beach was outspoken about not stocking Kobe Bryant’s children’s book due to how he handled the rape charges against him in 2003).

The Sill

Various locations

Eliza Blank, founder of The Sill, could be considered the original plantfluencer. She launched the company online in 2012, opened the first outpost of her plant store in the Lower East Side two years later, and has since grown the brand to seven (soon to be eight!) brick-and-mortars spread across the country. Not only will you find a wide range of leafy friends—from easy-to-care-for ZZs and snake plants to the pink aglaonema wishes and the funky string of bananas succulent—but they also stock sculptural planters, candles, greeting cards, and plant-inspired wall art. 

Lichen

98 Moore Street, Brooklyn 

Jared Blake and Ed Be launched Lichen in 2017 after meeting through a Craigslist sale. Neither has a background in interiors, but they quickly discovered they share a mutual love of good design, art, and music. They started selling vintage furniture through Instagram and opened their first storefront in 2019. Part art gallery, part coffee house, part home design shop, Lichen is a community hub and a reflection of Blake and Be’s varied tastes. They sell their own furniture designs alongside Noguchi lamps and Brazilian midcentury-modern pieces, plus decor items like incense holders, coasters, and planters by diverse independent designers like Yusho Nishioka and Alvaro Ucha Rodriguez. The best part? Everything is incredibly affordable, with most inventory priced at under $250.

Printed Matter

231 11th Avenue and 38 St. Marks Place, Manhattan

For a truly unique gift, head to Printed Matter, an independent, nonprofit bookstore that has been publishing and selling artists’ books for nearly five decades. Not to be confused with art books or monographs (which cover artworks created in a different medium, like painting or sculpture), artists’ books are works of art themselves. They are typically mass-produced, making them affordable and accessible artworks—an ideal gift for the person who has everything. The inventory is vast, with works from more than 9,000 artists—from iconic names like Sol LeWitt and Jenny Holzer to up-and-comers like Diane Zhou and Hugo Rocci—so give yourself plenty of time to browse.

Brooklyn Collective

212 Columbia Street, Brooklyn

Everything in this Columbia Street storefront, opened by Tessa Williams in 2004, is made by local Brooklyn artists and designers, often in the studio located in the rear of the shop. Members sell on a three-month contract, so the wares are constantly rotating (and there’s more available in store than online), but expect to find everything from statement earrings and ceramics to giclée prints and greeting cards.

Peace and Riot

401-403 Tompkins Avenue, Brooklyn

Interior designer Achuziam Maha-Sanchez curates her Bed-Stuy storefront (named after the alternative soul band she used to have with her husband) as a reflection of her global tastes and African and Caribbean heritage. Elegant textiles and servingware, woven baskets from Uganda, handmade Ankara ornaments, and mud cloth–upholstered armchairs fill the shop alongside fun novelty gifts like prayer candles featuring AOC and Beyoncé, a rainbow bagel–making kit, and decks of card featuring hip hop artists like Biggie and Jay-Z.

Home Union

319 Graham Avenue, Brooklyn

Since launching Home Union in 2016—first operating out of their apartment, then moving into a Williamsburg storefront—Daniel King and Meghan Lavery have become the media darlings of the vintage world. And with good reason: Their impeccable taste and knack for predicting trends has made Home Union a power player when it comes to sourcing 20th-century furniture. While gifting one of the retro sofas the shop is known for may be impractical, Home Union also stocks plenty of giftable designs, like the Ring-A-Date Calendar designed by Giorgio Della Beffa, ceramic mugs handmade in Tel Aviv, and chunky 1970s wall hooks, just to name a few.

MoMA Design Store

81 Spring Street, Manhattan

Sure, the MoMA Design Store is essentially a museum gift shop (albeit with an outpost some 50 blocks south of the actual museum) but the offerings go well beyond art reproductions and coffee table books. The shop is a veritable design emporium, and a go-to for holiday gifting, as it carries everything from OXO kitchen gadgets and IZIPIZI sunglasses to a neon, Mondrian-inspired vase and colorful Dusen Dusen bath towels. It’s truly the perfect place to shop for that one person in your life who likes things just so, because every product must meet a set of eight (!) criteria and be approved by MoMA’s curatorial department. And you can feel good about your purchase helping to fund the museum’s education programs and conservation efforts.

From Here to Sunday

567 Union Street, Brooklyn

Situated between the Gowanus Canal and a casket-making company, this adorable gift shop is a delightful surprise on a fairly industrial stretch of Union Street. Owner and artist Diana Ho curates the shop with a cheerful mix of products that bring an artful touch to the everyday, with a mission to "uplift marginalized artists through a decolonized lens." The paintings, zines, jewelry, ceramics, and other goods are mostly made by local Brooklyn artists, with offerings from creators in Los Angeles and Chicago as well. Ho features new artists regularly in rotating exhibitions, one of the most recent of which featured the abstract work of Miwa Neishi, including a collection of rainbow-hued mobiles fit for any adult bedroom.

Jung Lee

25 West 29 Street, Manhattan

The eponymous store from designer and event planner Jung Lee feels more like your chic aunt’s loft than a home goods shop, and that’s intentional. The vignettes are meant to show you what it would be like to actually live with the decor pieces that Lee sources from around the globe. Whether it’s a whimsical catchall or a shapely wine carafe, every piece exudes elegance, making this an ideal place to shop when you need a gift—for your boss, your mother-in-law, or your incredibly picky cousin—that’s sure to impress. 

GRDN

103 Hoyt Street, Brooklyn

We all know someone who blossomed into a wildly successful green thumb over the pandemic, and GRDN is just the place to go to find a gift for that person. Susanne Kongoy opened the storefront in 2004 in a former furniture repair shop, transforming the space into a dreamy secret garden. Clay planters hold mounds of bulbs, identified with handwritten notecards. Unusual blooms fill a table, waiting to be arranged into showstopping bouquets. An entire wall is covered with hanging plants. Beyond florals and greenery, you’ll find Saipua soaps, hand-dipped taper candles, and pots by artists like Ben Wolff. 

Wanderlustre

262 Court Street, Brooklyn

After a year and a half of limited travel, everyone has a little bit of wanderlust, so be prepared to want to gift yourself just about everything when you walk into Wanderlustre. Owner Kathryn Grogan Ivanfy’s passion for travel—she’s visited more than 30 countries and counting—is the guiding force behind the thoughtfully curated selection, which ranges from palo santo smudge sticks from Southern California to handblock print napkins made in New Delhi to woven English baskets.

Related Reading:

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Dwell’s Holiday Gift Guides Are Perfect for Everyone on Your Nice List