Every year during the holiday season, I have offered up a list of gifts worthy of any writer on your holiday list, or for yourself, should you be the type to reward yourself with a treat at the end of the year. This year, with the tough times and pandemic, I have chosen a different route.
This year I urge you to support your local businesses and restaurants, if you can. Buy yourself a meal or gift one to a friend or neighbor. Buy gift certificates. Shop local. Or look to artisan sites, like Etsy, to support a creative.
Covid has hit writers and artists hard this year. Jobs have been lost. Contracts dissolved. Gigs made obsolete. It’s not easy to make it in normal times, but with something like this, it is often the artistic jobs that are eliminated first. This is when we need to support each other even more than before.
This past year has been tough. And yet, there are many who are still creating beautiful things for purchase. Artworks. Photographs. Novels. Mittens. You name it, there are beautiful items available. You can find whatever you desire. The number of items that come up on an Etsy search for “writer gifts” is astounding. Add in the keywords: reader, books, literary or artist and the results expand exponentially.
And still, there are independent bookstores and shops hanging on by a thread. Local artisans who are in danger of losing their livelihood. Restaurants that may not reopen. Businesses that hang in the balance.
It’s up to us to help our communities. If you are able, do what you can. Look to those shops and eateries you want to have open when this all ends and support them as much as you can.
Most of all, have a wonderful holiday season, no matter what holiday you celebrate. We all deserve that after such a trying year.