Curiosa

328 S. Guadalupe St., 505-988-2429, curiosasf.com

(Enter on Montezuma Street, across from the Jean Cocteau) Curiosa shop owner Shawna Tatom doesn’t like to use the term “theme” — but each holiday season she incorporates a certain inspiration into all her items. “I make the whole aesthetic of the store reflect a vision for that year,” she says. “It’s basically what lights me up in the moment.” Last Christmas, it was all about cornhusks. She sourced handmade cornhusk dolls, trees, ornaments and other items from New Mexican artisans. At press time, she had not yet decided on this season’s concept. “I’m very picky about the things I carry in my store,” she says, “and I don’t bring in the same thing year after year.” Tatom scours Pinterest and other social media platforms for unique items made by small-scale artists, like Santa Fe local and longtime customer Paula Krogdahl, who uses hair from her English setter to create tiny nests embellished with crystals and other ornamentation. And Tatom begged Albuquerque-based clay artist Jane Webb, a single mother who makes woman-shaped shrines and ceramic bells, to let her carry her work. Curiosa offers all sorts of artisanal goodies, including notebooks, dish towels, jewelry, books, cards, home goods and confections — pretty much anything that can go under the tree or fill a stocking.

Array Home

322 S. Guadalupe St., 505-699-2760, arrayhome.com “We’re very lucky,” says Array Home co-owner Tom Stark, who has been in business in Santa Fe with his partner, Larry Redelin, since 2013. “Even throughout the pandemic, our locals kept us going.” The quality and selection in the Guadalupe Street store make it easy to understand why the shop has a dedicated clientele. There are intricately designed, mold-poured decorative soaps, alpaca throws, scarves, candles, candleholders and a variety of bath and body products. The children’s corner is filled with puzzles, toys and stuffed critters. Stark says the glass candleholders from Hawaii are popular holiday gifts. Poured into an antique iron Chinese wok and then coated with paint, the bowl-shaped products come in 26 different colors. “They’re always a huge hit,” he says. Globes that rotate based on the earth’s magnetic field make an excellent gift for men, Stark says. The mouth-blown glass hearts and chiles from Laura Goodwin of Nambe Glass Studio are another favorite. Fruitcakes from a monastery in Oregon sell out each year. Array Home also stocks gift-giving supplies, like wrapping paper, cards and ribbons, along with an assortment of gourmet edibles, including teas, nuts, pretzel bites and cheese straws, which Stark says is “a southern thing.”

Sub Rosa Mercantile

65 W. Marcy St., 505-428-9528, subrosamercantile.com After five years in Denver, Santa Fe native Madeleine Zinn decided to bring her vision back home and open Sub Rosa Mercantile in 2019. The shop is stocked with a variety of handcrafted home goods and gifts made in the United States, with a concentration on female, queer and minority-owned brands. “I try to find things you can’t find in New Mexico,” she says.

“Everything is geared toward self-care,” Zinn says, including scented candles, embossed leather key chains crafted by Los Angeles-based artist Miriam Dema, tinctures of all sorts from Colorado’s Dram Apothecary, gem-essence-infused body oil by Moon Nectar Apothecary and a variety of CBD ointments. There are also pins with positive sayings, artistdesigned bandanas, gift cards, notebooks, books with daily affirmations, and graphic tees with fun images and quotes. Giving back is an important part of the shop’s philosophy.

Sub Rosa plans to donate 10 to 15 percent of all sales on Black Friday (November 26) to local charities. “We try to do as many [donation days] as we can,” says Zinn. “I love Santa Fe so much. I just want to do my part.”

Santa Maria Provisions 125 E. Palace Ave., Suite 29, 505-983-2411 (in Sena Plaza)

When Juliann Mahony started Santa Maria Provisions seven years ago, she wanted to create a shop like the ones she visited while living abroad. “I’ve always loved small European shops,” she says. She also wanted a place where people could find unique items. “I go on a lot of buying trips. But it’s getting harder and harder to find things you can’t find everywhere.”

Fortunately, Mahony has discovered vendors with special items, like a Brooklyn-based candle maker who creates small-batch scents and a young couple from remote, mountainous North Carolina who use hemlock, cedar and hickory tree branches to cast beeswax pillar candles. “All my vendors are really good people,” she says. Linen towels, decorative pillows and fine robes and pajamas — which Mahony confesses to buying for herself — are also in stock, as are interesting items like large note cards with 87501 printed on the front,

jewelry, home goods and tea-leaf-reading sets. Small plates have sayings like, “Of course size matters. No one wants a small taco” and “A little bit of everything.” But the thing Mahony enjoys most about her shop is that “most of my business is local, which I love.”

Wild Life 55 Old Santa Fe Trail, 505-982-6618, santafedrygoods.com

Wild Life on the Santa Fe Plaza, the third establishment opened by Santa Fe Dry Goods proprietor Shobhan Porter, offers handmade items for the holiday table, such as hand-stamped Italian linen napkins from Stamperia Bertozzi, artisan-made platters, serving sets, carafes and dinnerware from around the globe. “We sell a lot of decorative table settings for the holidays,” says store director Carissa Campbell.

“Our [cashmere and vicuna] throws make great gifts too.” Each year Wild Life orders mouth-blown glass ornaments from various craftspeople, along with hand-embroidered tablecloths and Christmas stockings from Mexico. It also increases its stock of chocolate offerings from small-batch artisans like Askinosie Chocolate in Springfield, Missouri, and Pump Street Chocolate in Suffolk, England. The shop often pulls things together for hostess gifts or stocking stuffers, says Campbell, which many times include scented candles. The store carries the candle brand Cire Trudon, which was established in 1643 and provided scents for the court of Versailles and Napoleon Bonaparte. Campbell describes the aromas as complex and unusual. A regular contributor to “The New Mexican,” Wendy Ilene Friedman has written for regional and national publications, including “The New York Daily News,” “The New York Times,” and “The San Francisco Chronicle.” In her free time, she enjoys trail riding with her Spanish mustang and studying Spanish at Santa Fe Community College.