For the Hip Kids

If you’re buying for a little kid, look no further than Kite Flying Society’s bibs, created by local gal Kristen Berger, and available at Tangled Up in Hue, Janet Carson Gallery, and The Local Store. Another solid option is a picture book for parents to read to the young one, and a good local one from this year is The Legend of the Fancy Horse (available at The Local Store and Potting Shed). It’s the first in a trilogy, so maybe you’ll get lucky and have gifts planned for the next three years! Good for all ages are The Local Store’s brand-spanking-new t-shirts for kids. Sift through classics like the “Made in Eau Claire” shirts or find new gems like Carson Park Ranger, Dairyland Half-Pint, This Kids Digs Eau Claire, Altoona Beach Party, Eau Claire Rock Star, What a Babe (with the blue ox), and more.

For the Wino

If you’ve got friends who, since Sideways came out, can’t stop talking about bouquets, varietals, and tannins, then you’ve got yourself a certified wine snob. If you’ve got friends who just love wine, that’s a wino. And if you want to buy local for them, there’s lots of options. Joining the ranks of River Bend and Autumn Harvest wineries this year is Infinity Beverages, which sells $10 bottles of red, apricot, and mulberry wines through most grocery retailers around here. From the Vine is a new wine bar and shop on Eau Claire’s London Road, where you can taste before purchasing the bottled gift. And if you’ve got a wine lover who also loves to cook, look for the cookbook The Spirit Within, about cooking with wines. It’s available at River Bend, Autumn Harvest, Hahn’s Market, and Bookends.

For the Musician

If you’ve got a guitarist to buy for, then the new stores A String Above and Pedals Plus will have your giftee licking their chops and then playing licks and chops. A String Above in Chippewa Falls focuses on guitarists’ needs exclusively, while downtown Eau Claire’s Pedals Plus has lots of musicians’ needs covered and an entire wall of effects pedals. If you’ve got a rookie musician who doesn’t need instruments, then look for the new book How to Make It Small in the Music Business: A Survival Guide for the Beginning Band. Written by Tony Basley, a long-time local musician himself, the book is available at The Local Store.

For the Sports Enthusiast

Last year the Chippewa Valley Roller Girls swept the area with skating fever for their debut season. For the sports fan, their bouts are worth checking out, with fast-paced and full-contact action. Buy some tickets online, at The Local Store, or Eau Claire Indoor Sports Center for a bout in their second season for $8 each or $40 for the full season. If you’ve already been and they loved it, stop by a bout to pick up roller girl swag. If we’re talking more of the meat-eating, gun-toting, hunting enthusiast, then look no further than the book From Field to Table, a cookbook from Dunn County Fish & Game that involves exactly what it sounds like. They’re $15 at Fleet Farm and Lammer’s Food Fest in Menomonie.

For that Special Someone

This gift isn’t gonna be for everyone, but it’s becoming a highly popular option in the Chippewa Valley. Molly Marie Photography has a “boudoir” branch that essentially involves a sexy (but tasteful) photoshoot gift from one significant other to another. Being that Molly Marie is a gal, her shoots have focused on ladies. But dudes can feel free to ask if they can do a shoot in the style of George Costanza on an ottoman. She might take you up on that. And it totally sounds sexy. Exactly what a girl wants for a gift.

For the Bookworm

With the closure of Borders, literary types around this time of year are seriously bumming. So remind them of the other gem bookstores around with a gift card from places like the new used store Cogitare Books (in Menomonie), Borders’ new replacement Books-A-Million, or local classics like Bookends, Crossroad Books, and The Local Store. If you want a specific book from the past year, we highly recommend the Wisconsin Road Guide to Gangster Hot Spots. Compiled by Chad Lewis, one of the local guys who puts together the haunted locale books, this thing is an interesting read no matter what your giftee’s tastes are. Readers around here tend to love Michael Perry. Well he’s got a new, double-disc, spoken word album called The Clodhopper Monologues. Fans of his written work will love this collection of comedic anecdotes.

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For the Artist

Sure you could get art supplies from Benny HaHa or Michaels again, but you’ve done that three years in a row and they’re starting to think you’re lazy. If you want to really impress them, purchase their favorite piece in the Sculpture Tour. The 27 sculptures start at $4,700 and run up to $35,000, so you might want to save that for a very special occasion. If you’re thinking something more modestly priced, consider one of the glitter art pieces by Kari Tarr that impressed Martha Stewart enough to invite her on TV. She co-owns Mike’s Art and Design Supply in Menomonie with her husband, so you can find her there. And if you don’t like it, then you can look around and buy art supplies again.

 For the Sconnie Hedonist

Some people think Wisconsinites must be sadists for wanting to endure winter after winter. But we all know how Sconnies make it through winter: beer and cheese. Taking part in these Wisconsin pleasures is a big reason why we stay, and thankfully we’ve got local options galore. Gift out a growler or two of Lazy Monk, an Eau Claire-made beer available at many grocers, or Lucette, a new Menomonie brewer available at select places like The Fire House. Menomonie’s Das Bierhaus, who has its own beers for sale by growler, also has Bavarian mustards, mugs, boots, and something called “beer soaps” for sale. As for cheese, we highly recommend looking into Foster Cheese Haus, Nelson Cheese Factory, and Castle Rock Organic Farms. All sell ridiculously delicious stuff.

For the Nerd

Nerds are hard to shop for unless you are one. So let some fellow nerds let you in on a few secrets. Mark Lone’s three-book series of comic books, Rise of the Mutant Underground, is a great recent development in the world of nerdom. If your nerd giftee is more into movies, try one of Christopher Mihm’s 50s sci-fi spoofs featuring local actor Mike Cook. Both the B-movies and comics are at The Local Store. If you’re giftee is a literary nerd, then Picturing Tolkien needs to be at the top of the list. Written by local couple Phil Kaveny and Jan Bogstad, the book is a collection of critical essays on the film versions of Lord of the Rings. It’s $35 from McFarland Publishing. If you pick any of these gifts, polish it off with some Big Donkey Pizza. Frozen pizza is a well-known food staple of the nerd.

For the Audiophile

This has been another year in local music marked by awesome album releases. Any of which make great gifts this holiday season (see The Local Store and Revival Records for copies.) Folky fans can especially rejoice with an EP from Daredevil Christopher Wright, an LP from Megafaun, and debut releases from budding acts The Stoop Singers and Kalispell. Hip-hop fans got a long-awaited follow-up from Fathom (Shark Beach Party) plus two albums and a mixtape from Breakneck the Mage. Other highlights of the year include the straight-up rock of Jim Pullman Band, reggae/funk of Irie Sol, the classical brilliance of Nicholas Phillips and Ethan Wickman (Portals & Passages), ethereal flute of Peter Phippen, booze-fueled blues of Dead Dogs, tincan skuzz rock of Heart Pills, noise rock of Ronald Raygun, blues rock of Do It Yourself Daisy, and jazzy folk pop of Beacon James. And this band named Bon Iver. They had an album come out this year, too.

For the Health Class Teacher you Want to Bribe

It’s a long shot that you need to bribe your health teacher (or nurse/doctor), but if you do and price is no object, you’re in luck. Realityworks in Eau Claire makes ridiculously amazing experimental learning products, specifically ones involving babies. They have seven models of infant simulators and a pregnancy simulator. All are amazingly advanced educational tools (created by a local dude who used to be a rocket scientist – for reals!) that are so realistic they’d make any little girl go crazy with envy. But they’d be really depressed, because they simulate babies who are choking, have shaken-baby syndrome, fetal alcohol symptoms, drug symptoms, or have special needs. Yeah, probably not meant for your young niece, daughter, or sister.