Holiday Gift Guide: Your Guide To The Holidays

I Bet You Didn’t Know The Holiday Gift Guide Is More Than Just Gift Recommendations. I’ll admit it. I used to think the annual Holiday Gift Guide was exactly that — a guide for finding gifts. And while it is VERY good at that, I recently realized I was seriously underusing it. Because the 8th Annual Holiday Gift Guide is basically a holiday cheat sheet for Windsor Essex.

• Shopping? Check.
• Local businesses? Check.
• Holiday events? Check.
• Festive food and drink? Check.
• Things to do? Check.
• Ways to make the holidays feel a little more special? Absolutely.

It’s all right there, in one easy, beautifully curated guide. And honestly, I love that so much.

 

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There is something pretty wonderful about spending the holidays close to home and discovering all the incredible things our own community has to offer. From thoughtful gifts made by local makers to unique experiences, festive events, delicious food and plenty of ways to get out and enjoy the season, Windsor Essex has no shortage of ways to celebrate.

The best part? The Holiday Gift Guide makes it incredibly easy to find them.

It’s filled with local businesses, entrepreneurs and experiences that make our region such a great place to shop, eat, explore and celebrate while keeping our holiday spending right here at home.

So, if you’re looking for a little holiday inspiration, consider this your sign to stop scrolling, start exploring and let the 8th Annual Holiday Gift Guide be YOUR guide to the holidays in Windsor Essex.

Because it turns out, it’s about a whole lot more than what to put under the tree.

So, what else does the 8th Annual Holiday Gift Guide have to offer?

 

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Local Shopping with Benefits

Let’s talk about one of my favourite things about shopping local: you find things you won’t find everywhere else.

Unique gifts. Local makers. Small businesses with big personalities. Experiences you didn’t even know existed right here in Windsor Essex.

And there’s an even bigger benefit to keeping your holiday shopping close to home: When we shop with local businesses, more of our dollars stay right here in our community. In fact, research by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) found that when you spend with a small Canadian retail business, 66 cents of every dollar stays within the local provincial economy.

Pretty impressive, right? That means shopping locally helps:

• Support local businesses, entrepreneurs and jobs.
• Keep more money circulating in our community.
• Discover gifts you won’t find at the big-box stores.
• Invest in the people and businesses that make Windsor-Essex special.

And honestly, the Holiday Gift Guide makes finding those local gems so much easier.

I’ve already discovered plenty of unique finds that have officially taken my holiday shopping from “What am I going to buy?” to “Oh, they are going to LOVE this.”

More local. More unique. More thoughtful.

Win, win, win!

Family Bonding Schedule? Done and done.

I often rely on online sources to find things to do in our community. That means going on social media. As many of you know but wouldn’t exactly admit, modern attention is a fickle mistress. I usually end up doom scrolling, wasting time and forgetting to look for local events. I ultimately end up missing all the amazing local events. This is why I love the physical gift guide, because in the last pages of the guide, all festivals and events are listed in one spread.

Highlighter: Deployed.

10 minutes later, my holiday schedule is planned.

Wow.

But wait there’s more.

Did you also know that you can go skating outdoors at the City Hall Square and also at the LaSalle Landing? And that there are FOUR Light Festivals you can bring your family to? Or that there is a FREE Digital Holiday Lights Pass where you could win a $500 Devonshire Mall shopping spree for visiting all four?

Holiday Lights Pass

Your opportunity to win $500 to spend at Devonshire Mall

The first 100 pass users to visit and check in at all four light festivals instantly win a $5 Tim Hortons Gift Card too!

1. Visit visitwindsoressex.com/holidaylights
2. Register for a free Holiday Lights Pass
3. Visit each Light Festival and check in with your pass
4. Find the hidden QR code at Bright Lights using the clue in your pass
5. Upload content of you and your people for more chances to win!

Damn! For someone who hunts for new things to do and places to go in Windsor, I felt so uninformed. Thankfully the team at Tourism Windsor Essex showed me all the ways the guide can make my life so much easier.

You can pick up the guide from Tourism Windsor Essex’s downtown office, or at any of the numerous local businesses included in the guide.

You can also find the online guide here: 8th Annual Tourism Windsor Essex Gift Guide

Personally, I love having the physically printed guide because there are no digital distractions. Also, it feels nostalgic.

Master Host Recipes and Cocktails

This one surprised me! A thoughtfully curated list of food and drink recipes from our own favourite local restaurants and food experts.

Recipes:

• Butternut Squash and Apple Soup by Oxley Estate Winery
• Arancini by Cooper’s Hawk Vineyards & The Vines Restaurant
• French Onion Meatballs by Trimble Farms Cattle Co.
• Savoury Apple, Pear and Caramelized Onion Ricotta Gallette by The Fruit Wagon
• Maple Apple Bundt Cake by The Farm House Market

Find the full recipes here: A Taste of the Holidays: Local Recipes to Make Your Season Merry

Cocktails:

• Christmas Bulb Mimosa by Wolfhead Distillery
• Santa’s Little Helper Old Fashioned by Maiden Lane Wine & Cocktail Bar
• Fico D’oro by Spago
• Northern Kalikimaka by Ikto Tiki Bar
• Winter No. 18 by Nauti V’s Oyster Bar

Find the full cocktail recipes here: Mixing Up Magic: Local Cocktails for the Holiday Season

To complete the gastronomical experience of your guests, you can also find the perfect local wine, beers and spirits that compliment your menu exquisitely.

There is so much more content in the guide so be sure to put your hands on one!

Which of these would you try?

YQG’s Mischievous Elf

Think Elf on the Shelf but an elf that loves hopping between local breweries, cideries and distilleries during the holidays. Introducing Hops… Because he loves hopping. And also Humulus Lupulus. Get it? I definitely googled that. Hops has partnered with various local breweries, cideries and distilleries to give one lucky winner a holiday gift from every participating business.  And also a $250 VISA gift card. Delivered right to your door. Audible gasp. So keep your eye out on Hops when you’re out on the town!

How Elf on the Bar Shelf works:

1. Register at barrelsbottlesbrews.ca/hops
2. Visit participating businesses and hunt for Hops!
3. Find the QR code with Hops and scan it with your pass

The more stops you visit, the more chances you have to win.

Gifts for Under $50

Last but certainly furthest from the least, this is my short list for the cutest gifts you can find locally. Sorted in ascending order to make it easy for you.

 

Happy Holidays, Windsorites!

Original Blog Post by Mara Belano