The festive season is well and truly upon us!  This could mean some well-deserved quality time with the fam, alcohol poisoning as a direct result of twenty obligatory Christmas parties a week, cheating and eating ahead on advent calendars, and being fortunate enough to witness harried last-minute shoppers getting into biffs in Big W’s decoration aisle.  If you’re me, you know the true meaning of Christmas is paid leave from work, which equates to being paid to sit in your PJs all day eating Doritos and watching every Destiny’s Child video on YouTube.  Hard work but somebody’s got to do it.

The holidays aren’t all carols and mistletoe… The pressure of gift-giving is immense.  No one wants to be the person caught re-gifting, nor the person giving generic candles to all.  A particularly unmemorable gift exchange was the year the girls and I decided to do ‘novelty gifts’.  Instead of thoughtfully funny gifts, we all ended up giving presents we knew the receiver would despise, from which giver took personal enjoyment in giving, while receiver just wanted to punch said giver in the mouth.  And then all the gifts were purposefully lost.  But I digress.  So much can go wrong with gift-giving, but with the help of Leeloo, I’m here to show you that life doesn’t have to be that way!  Please find below some gift options that can only end in smiles all round.

(Clockwise from top left)

1. Paper Crane Brooch by Kimono Reincarnate

People that can fold paper into three-dimensional art impress me. People casually exhibiting skills I’m yet to master always garner a little respect from me. Like the way I’m wowed by people that stand on public transport without holding on and don’t even stumble. It blows my mind. Kimono Reincarnate has created a gorgeous range of Japanese-inspired brooches that remind me of that origami prowess I’m still aspiring to. This Paper Crane Brooch is just lovely and made all the more lovelier having been created from sustainable growth bamboo.

2. Vintage Button Hair Clips in Black & Red by Sheeps Clothing

Made with adorable hand-picked buttons, these Vintage Button Hair Clips in Black & Red by Sheeps Clothing would make perfect stocking-stuffers! My mother would do well to read this.  The only word that could begin to describe her idea of a stocking filler is random and I have a feeling they come from the “gift” shelf found in chemists.  Why I’m still demanding a Christmas stocking at the age of 22 is neither here nor there.

3. Stag Cameo Brooch by A Wilderness For You and Me

This Stag Cameo Brooch is the sweetest and my only wish is that I could blow it up by 400% and hang it on my wall.  Featuring an original vintage illustration framed in a handmade mahogany cameo, and conveniently presented in a small brown gift box, this would be a wonderful ‘here’s one I prepared earlier’ present.  A Wilderness For You and Me can do no wrong!

4. Seam Magazine :: Issue #01

Freshly launched at the end of October, Seam Magazine is a new independent magazine based out of Brisbane. With the aim of fostering the creative, their first issue focuses on start-up independent designers, artists and creatives.  With the ethics of a zine and the durability and density of a magazine (88 pages long and printed locally on FSC-certified 100% recycled stock using soy-based inks), Seam Magazine brings together the best of both worlds and is sure to be an awesome read.

5. Little Folk Boy Pin Pack by Lilac and Snow

Lilac and Snow have put together this super cute Little Folk Boy Pin Pack featuring vintage cabochons housed in raw brass lace edge settings. With each pin measuring a petite 1.8 x 1.3cm, how about doing away with the traditional candy cane insert and pinning these on Christmas cards to your favourite friends? Just beware of your less fortunate friends noticing they didn’t get a special something-something in their card… Jealousy will ensue. But it wouldn’t be Christmas for me without some kind of an awkward exchange!