Shop Small Business: A Guide to Holiday Shopping on Etsy

For the second year in a row there is a new movement in Holiday Shopping. No, it is not the ever more popular "open on Thanksgiving night to attract even more buyers" ploy of corporate retail chains across the country. This movement is different. This inititative is the Shop Small Business day, planned for Saturday November 26th, 2011. It is sponsored by American Express and encourages shoppers everywhere to participate by buying their holiday gifts at small business retailers. This could be the shop around the corner on Main Street USA or an online shop presence on the ever growing website Etsy.com. Being a small business ourselves on Etsy, we are totally into this effort. In fact, if you like on Facebook or follow us on Twitter you may already have an inkling as to how popular we feel this movement should be. 

So in light of all this we felt we should kickstart things a bit with a little Etsy Gift Guide we put together. After browsing their website we came up with a nice list of gifts that are affordable, handmade or vintage, and easy to purchase, while supporting small business all at the same time.

Left to Right from the top of the image we have:

1. The Blonde Package - 5 Elastic Solid Color Hair Ties that Double as Bracelets from Mane Message This one is for the lady who keeps a hair tie on her wrist just in case of hair emergency.

2. Caramel of the Month Club 12 Months from Have It Sweet For the gourmet sweets connoisseur.

3. Felt Kindle Case - Kindle 3 Case - Kindle 3 Cover - Nook Case - Kindle eReader Covers - Kindle Sleeve from Kawaii Owl  Design This one is for the tween who just got a Kindle and needs to keep it protected instead of on any random surface it lands on! (We have a tween, we know their habits.)

4. Mini Cactus from Lost In Zen Perfect for a co-worker or boss, help keep that office Zen feeling going strong all day and decorate the desk to boot!

5. Light Grey Wrap Dress With Short Ruffled Sleeves And Shirred Skirt from Lirola This one is for you, or your sister or your BFF so they will always have something simple, comfortable and stylish to wear!

6. Garden Bon Bons - Herbal Tea Selection from Garden Bon Bons This is for the gardener and tea drinker in your life, she can grow it and then steep it.

7. Circa 1950s Vintage Crate from GoSeek For the collector, a vintage item to treasure.

8. Manly Man Soap Set - Natural Soap - Handmade Soap - Unscented Soap - Mens Gift Set from Rocky Top Soap Shop For the gentleman, father, brother or hubby, something to pamper himself proudly!

9. The Big Lebowski (Yellow) - Pencil Set from OneUpDesigns For the cult classic movie buff, a simple and hilarious gesture to stuff the stocking.

We hope you will enjoy browsing Etsy just as much as we do!

Use the coupon code SHOPSMALL2011 to receive 20% anything in our Etsy shop on Saturday Nov.26th!