These SLC Shops Are The Place To Find Unique Gifts This Season
Every holiday season is rife with gift guides of every kind, filling up inboxes and splashing across social media ads. But these are mainly designed to drive eCommerce for brands that sell online. For the committed local shopper—or, let's be honest, the last minute shopper worried about shipping time for online purchases—who wants to know where to get great gifts without dealing with the crowds and scant inventory at the big boxes can turn to this list.
Or maybe you just want that festive browsing experience that feels more like a seasonal outing and not a harried errand. Think of this list as less of a gift guide and more of an itinerary of discovery to find those unique and interesting gifts for every person in your life.
It may seem too on the nose but I'm talking about actual gift shops. You know, like the ones you have to exit through when visiting various local attractions. From the zoo to the planetarium and other places of interest, attraction gift shops are THE place to get your socially distanced browsing on for Christmas shopping and holiday season gifts. Here are four Salt Lake gift shops that will surprise and impress you with the quality of merchandise and thoughtful gifts they carry.
This Is The Place And Pioneer Village Heritage Park
Self-proclaimed as the biggest visitors center gift shop west of the Mississippi (though it's unclear how verifiable that is), there is no doubt this little gift shop packs an outsized punch. The website states they have everything from coonskin caps to designer jewelry. Oddly this description paints the perfect picture. There are various product sections by category within the old pioneer house gift shop that used to be the main visitor's center until they recently built a multi-million dollar interpretive center next door. And these sections contain everything. It's almost more pioneer general store than gift shop as you can get kitchen wares and food preserves as well as clothing, souvenirs, puzzles, and trinkets of every shape, price, and size. Defying description, this is a gift shop that needs to be experienced. It's not the place to look for something specific, but rather to open your mind to gift ideas that you may otherwise never think about in advance.
Clark Planetarium
Full disclaimer, the gift shop at the Gateway's Clark Planetarium is where I pretty much got all my kid's presents last year. But I can personally attest that the entire time I was there, there was only one other shopper, and this being 2020 and all that entailed for COVID-19, I was grateful. But besides that, I had my pick of some of the best science and STEM-related toys and games you can find in Salt Lake City, which meant more than fun on Christmas morning, but hands-on, together-fun for weeks and months afterward as we built a weather station, grew sprouts, extracted the colors from black ink to make a rainbow on a coffee filter and more. From glow-in-the-dark constellations to high-end telescopes to behold the actual constellations, find it all at the planetarium gift shop.
Hogle Zoo
Not only is Salt Lake's Hogle Zoo gift shop a great place to get the best quality stuffed animals that represent actual animals they have in the zoo, but it's also a great stop for international wares and goods that often support worthy causes and aren't exploitative or mass-produced. Fairtrade coffee and jewelry, environmentally conscious clothing and journals, all alongside adventure gear and curiosity toys fill this zoo's gift shop making it a treasure trove of gift-giving possibilities for everyone you have on your list. But let me cut to the chase: This is where you come to get the most adorable red panda plushies. They're ALMOST as cute as the actual one in the zoo.
UMFA Museum Shop
One of life's nice little back-pocket secrets is this: Art museum gift shops always impress. They are the best place to go for high-quality journals, sketchbooks, and personal art supplies like stationery, pens, colored pencils, and really anything in that category. There's just something about being in the presence of art that makes people want to create some of their own. And for that, the museum gift shop is ready to empower your itching fingers. The Utah Museum of Fine Art's gift shop is no exception. Find craft-bound books of blank, heavy-weighted paper you can't stop caressing to give to your creative friends, bold and colorful jewelry, scarves, and Rothko calendars. There is a creative and beautiful world to discover at the UMFA gift shop at the University of Utah.
There are more gift shops and more attractions throughout Salt Lake City. From Temple Square to Red Butte Garden, Discovery Gateway to the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, with just a couple of days before Christmas, it's not too late to shop local and discover the last-minute, gift-giving inspiration you need at a local museum or attraction gift shop near you.
This article originally appeared on the Salt Lake City Patch
