{"id":13843,"date":"2015-11-24T01:38:11","date_gmt":"2015-11-24T01:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/?p=13843"},"modified":"2015-11-24T01:38:11","modified_gmt":"2015-11-24T01:38:11","slug":"my-top-ten-for-shopping-detroit-this-december","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/my-top-ten-for-shopping-detroit-this-december\/","title":{"rendered":"My Top Ten Places to #ShopDetroit This December"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Christmas tree in Campus Martius is lit, the first snow of the season has fallen, small Business Saturday is less than a week away, holiday markets have started, and Santa will be riding through Detroit for America\u2019s Thanksgiving Day Parade Thursday. All these events signal to me that it is time to start baking Christmas cookies and strategize my Christmas gift-shopping plan. In a continuation of our first challenge project focused on small businesses in Detroit, I\u2019m joining many other fellows in shopping small and shopping inside Detroit this holiday season. While I can\u2019t say the exact gifts I\u2019ll be buying (that would spoil the fun for friends and family reading!), I\u2019ve put together a list of my top ten spots for finding presents just as special as my sisters!<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Hello Again Records<\/a>: <\/strong>\n
  2. Bike Tech<\/a>:<\/strong> With sisters living in Chicago and Brooklyn and a Dad who loves up-north, biking is big in my family. As biking continues to increase in popularity within Detroit, there are many new and old bike stores to meet a biker\u2019s needs (and wants!). My first stop in seeking a gift for my family of bike lovers will be Bike Tech. BikeTech is located on East Warren near Grosse Point Park. I had the pleasure of learning more about the store\u2019s 30 year history during our first challenge project. For gifts, I\u2019ll be looking through their bike accessories and vintage odds and ends, but they also have new and used bikes for sale, bike repair services, and snowmobile repair services!<\/li>\n
  3. Run-Detroit<\/a>: <\/strong>Not the only runner in the family, I\u2019ll be visiting Run Detroit to look for running apparel and accessories for exercising in the winter weather. Nike\u2019s plan to open a store in Downtown Detroit this spring has many excited, but don\u2019t forget you can already find Nike and more at Run Detroit. The store also offers 8 AM group runs each Saturday for runners at any level. Their staff is very knowledgeable not only about their products, but all things running in general. If your back is sore (and you\u2019re worried about carrying your backpack full of gifts around while shopping like me), they\u2019ll be able to offer you plenty of tips to get you back to tip top shape in no time.<\/li>\n
  4. Nora<\/a>, City Bird<\/a>, and Nest<\/a>:<\/strong>\u00a0\"IMG_1829\"Though I hope to spread my\u00a0dollar throughout the city,\u00a0I can\u2019t ignore these three great options for\u00a0housewares, coloring books, apparel, jewelry, and more in my backyard. Each of the stores has a unique offering of items from different artists, mainly in the Detroit area. At Nora, I already treated myself to the \u2018Detroit Loves Everybody\u2019 t-shirt and many of my friends have their eye on it. I\u2019m in love with the variety of vendors at City Bird. In particular, I plan to get someone on my list a frame made by Mutual Adoration. Mutual Adoration uses wood from Detroit house deconstruction to make homey frames, trays, and more. Bonus: Mutual Adoration<\/a> is on Etsy for all of y\u2019all living outside Michigan!<\/li>\n
  5. Signal Return<\/a>:<\/strong> My gift shopping could\n
  6. Eastern Market Antiques<\/a>:<\/strong> My second must stop location in Eastern Market is Eastern Market Antiques. The store has three floors of vintage furniture, books, clothing, housewares, jewelry, sports gear, and more. It is like entering your Grandma\u2019s basement or a well curated garage sale. I\u2019ll be returning to take a second look at their selection of old University of Michigan items for my wolverine friends and family.<\/li>\n
  7. Polish Art Center<\/a>:<\/strong>\n
    \"IMG_1680\"

    Store window for the Polish Art Center.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

    Gift shopping\u00a0in the Kempa household wouldn\u2019t be complete without a trip to the Polish Art Center in Hamtramck. My mom has shared her love of Polish\u00a0pottery with my sisters and I. In addition to most Christmas dishes\u00a0being served out of an eclectic mix of Polish pottery pieces, each Christmas usually involves the addition of at least one new piece of pottery. As my family\u2019s resident Detroiter, I must stop here during my Christmas shopping.<\/li>\n

  8. Coffee Crawl: <\/strong> I love coffee. My friends and family love coffee. Rather than purchasing anyone Startbuck\u2019s Holiday blend, I\u2019ll be visiting Detroit\u2019s growing collection of coffee shops, such as Red Hook<\/a>, Caf\u00e9 Con Leche<\/a>, Great Lakes Coffee<\/a>, Anthology<\/a>, and Germack<\/a>, to find everyone\u2019s favorite blends.<\/li>\n
  9. Holiday Markets: <\/strong>\n
  10. Experiences: <\/strong>In addition to buying physical gifts, Detroit is full of experiences to gift to friends and family. For some of my friends and family living in the metro area, I\u2019m planning to gift little Detroit excursions. Tickets to the D.I.A.\u2019s 30 Americans Exhibition<\/a>, tours with the Detroit Experience Factory<\/a>, skating<\/a> at Campus Martius, or tickets to a show at one of Detroit\u2019s many options are just a few options for gifting an evening out!<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    There you have it-my top ten places to shop Detroit this holiday season! Okay\u2026so the last three spots aren\u2019t just one location each, but that\u2019s what makes Detroit so special. There are way more than 10 options for your holiday shopping needs in Detroit! Join me in my quest to only #ShopDetroit this Christmas!<\/p>\n

    P.S.- I will be cheating and ordering my Holiday cards from my sister\u2019s store on Etsy<\/a> BUT she does have some pretty adorable cards. I guess I should say join me in shopping Detroit for gifts and my sister\u2019s store for cards. \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

    \"il_570xN.868707952_r9w6\"<\/a>

    One of the many cute cards made by my sister!<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The Christmas tree in Campus Martius is lit, the first snow of the season has fallen, small Business Saturday is less than a week away, holiday markets have started, and Santa will be riding through Detroit for America\u2019s Thanksgiving Day Parade Thursday. All these events signal to me that it is time to start baking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":120,"featured_media":13849,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,24,13,430],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-playdetroit","category-shopdetroit","category-play-detroit","category-shop-detroit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/120"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}