Instead of shopping at malls and chain stores this holiday season, consider the eclectic gifts offered right here in Morgan Hill. Though times are tight, remember that shopping locally generates funds that go right back into the Morgan Hill community. By buying your presents at independent boutiques and stores, you are helping Morgan Hill keep that unique character that makes our city a special place.
Here are some local gift ideas from around Morgan Hill:
If your child is going through that pretty pretty princess phase, look for the fanciful handmade ballerina tutus at Rockstarz Children’s Boutique. Created by designer Meg Dana, and made from layers of tulle decorated in ribbon, lace, flowers, sparkles and rhinestones, these tutus are gathered and sewn to have a bouncy touch. Coming in a rainbow of colors and styles, they are perfect for both dance recitals and doing pirouettes around the living room. Price: $80.
Karma Boutique’s cozy oatmeal-colored turtleneck sweater by Flying Tomato will keep you stylish and snug as a bug. Its six petaled cable knit flower pattern and billowy sleeves bring a feminine air, while the ribbed neck and hem keep it fitted and non-bulky. Pair it with your favorite jeans, boots and jacket for a casual affaire, or wear it over a fitted thermal and yoga pants to stay warm while running errands. Price: $69.
Spruce up your home décor with oversize ornamental calligraphy brushes, made in Afghanistan out of carved wood and jade. This and scores of other Asian-inspired trinkets are sold at The Colory in downtown Morgan Hill, an interior furnishing store owned by designer Sherry Tollefsrud. The opulent novelty brushes come in an array of colors and sizes, from small hand-held versions all the way up to gigantic stone brushes over two feet in length. Price: $75.
The Zhivago Weekender is a plush velvet shoulder bag that can double as both a weekender and a purse to carry around your knitting and crafting supplies. Oakland based Offhand Designs hand makes these bags, everything from designing and creating their own original chenille, brocade and velvet patterns, to stitching the bag’s final seems. Available at The Continental Stitch, the Zhivago Weekender is both roomy and streamlined, featuring an 18-inch doctor's bag frame closure, double velvet straps and multiple deep outside and inside pockets to carry everything from your cell phone to your latest scrap-booking project. Price: $220.
CROP ZONE: Owner Andy Mariani surveys the fruit that makes gifts from Andy's Orchard unique.
Andy's Orchard is arguably the premier rare fruit grower in the county. Owner Andy Mariani grows hundreds of varieties of cherry, peach, plum, nectarine, apricot and other stone fruits on 28 acres just west of the Anderson Reservoir. The best time of year to visit is the summer. That's when his myriad varieties of rare stone fruit are ripe for the picking. But the second best time to make the trip down to Morgan Hill is right now. Andy's sells many of his fruits in dried form. The chocolate-dipped Blenheim apricots are great, but for me the specialty of the house is the sugarplums. Even though I've heard mention of sugarplums innumerable times in "The Night Before Christmas," I never stopped to think about them as an actual food product. But before the rise of mass-produced candy, the sugarplum was a coveted seasonal American sweet. Essentially a stuffed prune, Andy's sugarplums are made with dried apricots, walnuts, almonds, lemon juice and honey. Packed into ornate half-pound and 1-pound wooden gift boxes, the sugarplums are only available in November and December.
Forget Tiffany’s. Few people know that Morgan Hill is the only known site of the rare and valuable gemstone, Morgan Hill Poppy Jasper. This semi-precious stone is celebrated for possessing red and yellow orbicular dots, or "poppy flowers,” on a background of white and black stone. Most commonly found on the west side of Morgan Hill’s El Toro mountain, this extraordinary rock is believed to have formed as a result of unusual seismic and volcanic activity in the Morgan Hill area a millennia ago. Shelly Fast, owner of The Goddess Shop in Morgan Hill, buys chunks of Morgan Hill poppy jasper from locals who sometimes find bits of it in riverbeds or on their land. After the rough jasper is crushed and polished by a lapidary, Fast wraps the pieces of rock in artisan wire and makes broaches, pendants and earrings you can’t find anywhere else. Price: $80 and up.
The Raggedy Heart owners Marilyn MacDonald and LeeAnn Rush-Sandberg chose Garden Party Soy candles for their small, Americana-themed boutique in Morgan Hill not just because they are clean burning and feature intoxicating, housewarming scents. These naturally chemical free, environmentally safe candles are manufactured 100 percent by adults with developmental disabilities through Shepherds Enterprises, a Wisconsin based organization that provides vocational training for adults. Presented in simple glass mason jars, the candles are made with all-natural soybean base wax, fragrant oil and cotton core wicks. They come in over 50 scents, like Peaches and Cream, Apple Cinnamon, Tuberose and Jasmine, Lilly of the Valley, Hazelnut and Victorian Christmas. Price: $18 each.
Why shop at Pottery Barn when you can get these one-of-a-kind coat racks made entirely from scraps left over from Victorian building teardowns at The Raggedy Heart? A unanimous San Francisco artist creates these unique pieces in his basement after scavenging wrecking sights throughout the Bay Area for bits and pieces of wood and other materials. He combines antique leaded crystal doorknobs and raw old building fragments into usable and beautiful coat racks and cabinets that are entirely recycled. Price: $450.
Made in Indonesia, batik fabrics are known for having deep rich colors and fine crinkle lines that give them individual character. Batik itself is a centuries old wax-resist dyeing technique, used on textiles in Asia and Africa. At Material Pleasures, a brand-new upscale quilting store in downtown Morgan Hill, they specializes in stocking these vibrantly beautiful fabrics for use in quilt-making and textile art. You won’t find brands like Bali Batiks and Hoffman Fabrics at big box craft stores like Michaels or Joanne’s. These high thread count, hand dyed and hand painted cotton fabrics are just right for the quilter in your family that wants a little something special to work with. Price: $9.25 a yard.
Retro Electro produces funky, handmade cooking aprons that are both flirtatious and functional, and available at Magpie Home and Garden. Composed from an eclectic mishmash of vintage fabrics, salvaged material and modern prints, they are complete with pockets and long tie strings at the back. Being edged in lace and ruffles, these aprons also have a lingerie like appearance to make home entertainment a playful and sexy affair. They are supergirly and will keep your clothes clean while you serve up the Christmas roast, and make great hostess or housewarming gifts, too. Price: $65
It’s befitting that Magpie Home and Garden, an exquisitely decorated French-flavored boutique in Morgan Hill, stocks absinth accoutrement. Absinth, the notorious and recently legalized anise flavored alcoholic beverage, was traditionally served at French cafes in a ritual that includes cutting the green alcoholic beverage with mineral water and sweetening it with pure white sugar. Magpie sells these traditional absinth fountain sets, including delicate four-spicket glass absinth fountains from the Czech Republic, bubble-bottomed absinth glasses for measuring and serving absinth doses, and perforated absinth spoons to hold refined sugar cubes. Drink to the green fairy! Price: Fountains $275, spoons $16, Glasses: $10.
Where to Shop:
Magpie Home and Garden, 17505 Monterey St., Morgan Hill. 408.779.4594.
The Raggedy Heart, 17415 Monterey St., Morgan Hill. 408.782.8333.
The Colory, 17375 Monterey Road, Morgan Hill. 408.778.7814
Rockstarz Children's Boutique, 17490 Monterey Road, Morgan Hill, 408.782.9191.
Material Pleasures, 17415 Monterey Rd Ste A, Morgan Hill, 408.778.5058
Karma Boutique, 311 Vineyard Town Ctr., Morgan Hill, CA 95037, 408.778.7900
The Continental Stitch, 17337 Monterey Rd, Morgan Hill, 408.779.5885
The Goddess Shop, 17400 Monterey Road, Morgan Hill, 408.779.2089
Andy's Orchard 615 Half Road, Morgan Hill. 408.782.7600.
Booksmart 80 E. Second St., Morgan Hill; 408.778.6467. Mon–Sat 10am–8pm and Sun 10am–6pm.
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