4 Local Initiatives to Discover and Shop Local Businesses This Christmas

Hi everyone,

Are you still busy with Christmas Shopping and trying to find distinctive Christmas present and stocking filler ideas? Would you also like to do this shopping from local and independent makers and support them on the way? Today, I will talk about four initiatives that might make your job easier. All these initiatives basically serve as online directories for local and independent makers and help to find locally handmade gift items for your loved ones. 

1. Neighbourhood Market from Edinburgh's Christmas 

Edinburgh's Christmas has been organising Christmas Festival events all around Edinburgh for years and bringing joy to our city with famous Christmas Market at Princes Street Gardens and St. Andrew Square. It has always been a pleasure meeting friends at the Christmas Market, having a mulled wine and enjoying the festive vibes no matter how cold it is. And it is a shame that we can't do it this year. 

However, to support the local businesses in the city, Edinburgh's Christmas brings Neighbourhood Market to our homes. It is an Online Directory for a big range of small businesses of Edinburgh, can be filtered by categories. It is also a great supportive initiative for businesses as businesses can sign up for free. 

2. Summerhall Online Christmas Market by Summerhall 

Summerhall is a venue in Edinburgh for diverse programmes of visual and performing arts. It is a place for all kinds of events, parties, workshops, festivals, weddings and meetings. It is home to a varied community of creative artists and businesses, including a pub, café, brewery and distillery. The venue hosts various events throughout all year and one of its most famous event is its yearly Christmas Market.

Due to ongoing Covid-19 restrictions, they weren't able to organise a physical Christmas Market in 2020. So they decided to bring the market to our homes by creating Summerhall Online Christmas Market directory. There are more than 60 carefully selected makers in the directory, all local, all independent. You can browse the makers on the directory and then directly visit their Online Stores to support them. 

3. Edinburgh Lockdown Economy Small Business Directory 

As the name suggests, this initiative has actually been established during the Covid-19 lockdown in Edinburgh back in March. Their aim is that "through this project more people will discover new services or things to do that have been made available to them during lockdown." So, although the main aim is to bring small businesses together with the people who would need their goods and services, this directory may serve as a comprehensive guide for Christmas Gift ideas. 

Currently there are more than 800 businesses included in the directory and they can be browsed by categories. There is also a noticeboard where you can find offers and discounts or updates from these small businesses. 

4. Buy It Locally - Lothian

Finally, last but not least, Buy It Locally - Lothian is a one-stop website to go to, for sourcing everything you’re looking for locally, from food & homewares to accessories & hand made jewellery and much, much more. You can find everyday use items on this website as well as the perfect gift ideas. So it is another fantastic directory to look for locally handmade gift items. The small business directory also has a "Special Offers" page, where you can find offers from the including businesses and some of these offers are special to the diectory. 

I find these directories very useful for browsing handmade Chrsitmas gift ideas and I hope you do, too.

Have a lovely week.

Melike.