‘Tis the season for peppermint mochas, cozy sweaters, Christmas carols and…shopping. Shopping local has always been important, but with constant changes and pivots for local businesses to navigate, it is more important than ever!
Here is your 2023 Calgary holiday gift guide so you know what to buy for who, and be reassured that you are supporting your local Calgary community, while you’re at it.
Delicious Eats & Treats
La Belle Graze
Give the gift of cheese this year with the delicious charcuterie boards and spreads from La Belle Graze! Send your loved ones (or yourself) a cheese-stacked box to eat next to the Christmas tree. Sounds like the perfect Christmas Eve dinner for a busy family or couple, – just add eggnog.
Click here to pick the perfect holiday grazing board!
Chunk’d
If you haven’t tried Chunk’d Cookies, you are truly missing out on a delightfully sweet and explosive experience. This is the best gift for the person in your life with a sweet tooth. They have epic seasonal cookie flavours, including The Ruby (made with a Bailey’s brownie cookie dough, and a Bailey’s truffle on the top), or the Whimsy Elf (with housmade candy cane and a creamy cheesecake filling).
Hide it in the branches of your Christmas Tree, or sneak it in a stocking for the perfect Christmas Day treat – or breakfast, we don’t blame you!
Pasta La Mano
Pasta La Mano is a local pasta concept, with a location in the First Street Market, and also with an online store!
The perfect Christmas gift for your favourite pasta-loving person is without a doubt, the Pasta La Mano Pasta Club, or even better yet, the Pasta + Wine Club!! For $30 or $60/month, you can have handcrafted, fresh pasta (enough for 2 people!) delivered to your front door, with a housemade, from-scratch sauce, and a paired wine!
Click here to give the gift of carbs!
Lazy Bake
Lazy Bake is a local YYC company that is built on making delicious baked goods easier and more accessible to anyone with a sweet tooth, but maybe no time or patience for measuring. The worst part about baking, is getting halfway through the recipe, then realizing you don’t have enough flour – but with Lazy Bake, you can stock your cupboards and have baked goods that will WOW your loved ones!
This is the gift for anyone looking to spice up date night with some at-home baking, or the on-the-go entertainer with no time to keep that cookie jar full. From fresh bread, to cookies, to mulled wine you can enjoy the rewards without all the work.
Crave Cupcakes
We all love delicious and traditional holiday baked goods, but not a lot of us have the time to spend in the kitchen (especially around the holidays), so this is the perfect gift to drop off to a busy loved one to ensure their holiday cookie quota is met!
Order online, or head into one of their YYC locations to get the goods!
j.co wrapology
jco wrapology is our favourite local online candy store! Not only do they ship across Canada, but they perfectly curate and design the most beautiful (and yummy) candy boxes, for every holiday. There are a few holiday themed boxes this season, including a beautiful Hannukah box!
These are the best little stocking stuffer for any sweet-treat lover near or far!
Click here to get in your holiday orders!
A Pack of Gradient Beverages
Make this season bright with a pack of cool canned drinks from Gradient Beverages! These drinks start at 8% and go lower in alcohol as you drink the pack – how cool! Get festive this year with their Holiday packs of mixed alcohol, standard alcohol and no alcohol options available.
Click here to try their Holiday Cans!
Self-Care Gifts
Routine Cream
Routine Cream was born in Calgary, and keeps us Calgarians smelling incredible with their natural, vegan, allergen free body care products! From deodorant to hair and body care, to scented candles, you can mix and match scents, or even match your deodorant to your candles! This is a great gift for anyone who could use a little extra self care.
Click here to shop their incredible products online, or here to find the closest location you can shop and sniff in person!
Land of Daughters
This Metis + female-owned local business creates the most incredible scented candles, diffuser blends, perfume, room sprays and more. These are all great stocking stuffer items, or thoughtful gifts for anyone on your shopping list!
Shop online here, or click here to see where you can shop in-store!
Clear Float Spa
Give the gift of stillness this holiday season. The incredible sensory deprivation tanks at Clear Float Spa give an inexplicable sense of calm and stillness that is the best gift for anyone on your list that may be dealing with stress or who could use some peace and quiet.
Right now, they are offering a special giftcard promotion, which includes a single float for $54+gst *receive one complimentary float if you spend $250+ and other deals!
Click here to order your giftcard!
Rocky Mountain Soap Co.
Add some local essentials under the tree this year, with some Rocky Mountain Soap Co. goodies! Their bath bombs are a great stocking stuffer for any self-care Sunday warriors, and there have a wonderful, natural, kids and baby collection for any new-parents!
Shop online here, or click here to see where you can buy!
Experiences
GlobalFest
GlobalFest tickets are back at Calgary Co-op and on sale for the holidays! Take advantage of the Holiday Special on general admission tickets and GlobalPasses, only until Sunday December 31, 2023. Perfect stocking stuffers for the whole family!
The 2024 festival is a celebration of 20 years of GlobalFest – enjoy the return of cultural pavilions, children’s programming and more! Regular admission passes are available at Calgary Co-op Customer Service and online, here!
Children 5 and under are free when accompanied by an adult.
Mobile Escape
The Mobile Escape team is bringing puzzles to a whole new level! They have taken their experience creating Escape Rooms, and have brought exciting, newly creative and digital puzzle experiences that are accessible and entertaining!
Their challenges can be individual experiences, or used for team-building or family-bonding. Each month, they drop a new chapter, so you can go back and binge-puzzle the full previous season of experiences, dip your toes in with one to start, or gift your puzzle-loving loved one with a full year’s subscription of adventure and mystery!
YDN.YYC
YDN, or Your Date Night, was born during COVID by the founders, Isaac and Kaitlyn when they were looking for fun things to do at home during quarantine. Treat a couple, family or friends in your life to a unique at-home experience with one of their YDN kits! With their kits, you can make delicious smelling candles, fun bracelets or even paint some masterpieces!
The Cookbook Co. Cooking Classes
The Cookbook Co. is the best spot in the city to go to for kitchen gadgets, local ingredients and cooking tips, and what better way to spend some time with a loved one than a cooking class? This is a great gift for a couple at any relationship stage, as it’s a great way to spend time together and strengthen those collaboration skills, while you learn some new kitchen tricks.
Click here to purchase a giftcard!
Sofia Katherine Photography
Give the gift of art! Sofia Katherine is a local photographer who specializes in mind-blowing beautiful, starry night shoots! The gift of a shoot would be the perfect treat for anyone looking to update their mantle and pictures like these will come with memories that will last a lifetime.
OEB Breakfast Co.
Brunch anyone? OEB is one of YYC’s favourite brunch spots, and if you’ve been, you know why!
Purchase a gift card and give the gift that fills the soul! Breakfast is so much more than just the first meal of the day. And who knows – maybe whoever you get the gift card for will invite you!
Click here to find the closest location to you!
Hexagon Board Game Cafe
An evening at Hexagon Game Board Cafe is an evening well-spent! Offer the board game buff in your life a giftcard towards a coffee and candy-fuelled evening with their favourite teammates and opponents at Hexagon!
Click here to grab a giftcard!
Games & Puzzles
StumpCraft Puzzles
The absolute perfect gift for the puzzle-lover in your life. StumpCraft makes the most beautiful and undoubtedly unique wooden jigsaw puzzles around. Each puzzle includes recognizable shapes unlike any puzzle pieces you have ever seen, and they incorporate special designs within the puzzle image.
Wearable Gifts
Joydrop Jewelery
Joydrop is a local company that is passionate about supporting Canadian creators, jewellers and artists and sell their beautiful creations, from statement making sunglasses and nostalgic necklaces to eclectic earrings and awe inspiring accessories.
We all deserve to feel spoiled, and Joydrop is the way to do it, with fashionable and inspired accessories.
Click here to find the location closest to you, or shop online here!
Camp Brand Goods
Everyone in YYC seems to own a Camp Brand tee or sweater, but when they are such great quality, and the designs are ever-changing, one can never seem to have enough! For your t-shirt, outdoor adventure-loving loved one, look no further for the best gift.
Coutukitsch
Coutukitsch is a local, female-owned jewellery company with the perfect, sparkly or subtle bling for that special someone in your life. Their charm program is absolutely gorgeous, with interchangeable earring, bracelet and necklace bases!
Home Goods
Plantsie
We all have that one person who treats their plants like their children, and by gifting a Plantsie, you could turn anyone into this type of plant-parent. Plantsie houseplants are beautiful, healthy and come with personalizable names, phrases and pots, so it’s sort of like an adult build-a-bear!
Pick the perfect Plantsie here!
From Tree to Sea
From Tree to Sea is your one-stop shop for incredibly stunning ceramic pieces. These beautiful, quirky mugs, tumblers and natural vases sell quickly after each release, but are worth the hunt (and the wait) for these gorgeous functional art pieces!
Andrew Glazebrook
Kitchenware doesn’t have to be just functional, it can also be beautiful! Andrew Glazebrook uses his woodworking talent to create unique spatulas and rolling pins that are crying to not be hidden in a kitchen drawer! For the chef or baker in your life, gift them something they will be excited to use everyday!
Check out the beautiful collection here!
Rebecca Maher Glass
Rebecca Maher is a Calgary-based glass artist, who makes stunning pieces that are sure to wow whoever you purchase them for! From mountain scapes, to butterflies, flowers, feathers and more, each piece is made unique and one-of-a-kind, and will shine gorgeous colours when the sun hits.
Happy Shopping, YYC! Please do let us know if we are missing any of your favourite locally made goods for this 2021 Calgary Holiday Gift Guide!
Shopping for loved-ones across Canada? Make sure to check out our other Holiday Gift Guides, from the West Coast to the East Coast! 😍
