For many Christ­mas is about the newest shini­est toys and things that break with­in 10 min­utes of the box being opened, a sea­son of malls, bad music and chain stores. But those peo­ple are not us, oh no, for we know that Welling­ton is an abun­dance of bou­tique shops and delight­ful mar­kets.

So with the idea of help­ing you all avoid the things you hate about Christ­mas, and do good things like shop local and shop hand­made I’ll be doing a wee series on all the delight­ful ways to get your gift on this Christ­mas. If you think it’s too soon to be think­ing Christ­mas then think again, just check the  NZ Post Christ­mas mail­ing guide­lines and you’ll see what I mean.

I thought I’d start with what’s kick­ing off this week­end, in Hand­made. Next I’ll attempt  a round-up of what’s on in local shops and what you can expect from the sea­son in Mar­kets.

You already know about Aimée Mcleod’s Stu­dio Week­end which is hap­pen­ing this Sat­ur­day and Sun­day.

Also on this week­end is the Christ­mas Knack Mar­ket.

Sat­ur­day Novem­ber 25th from 9.30am till1.30pm

Berham­pore School, Brit­o­mart Street (off Ade­laide Road), Berham­pore, Welling­ton, New Zealand

Knack is very much the mar­ket where you find the up and com­ing crafters and artists of Welling­ton. Plus it’s one of those mar­kets where you get to do good by shop­ping. Knack start­ed in July 2007 as a school fundrais­er, and has a love­ly com­mu­ni­ty feel to it. It’s a great place to find well-made, inter­est­ing gifts and with park­ing, eft­pos and great cof­fee on site it’s a sea­son­al delight.