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f you haven’t gotten your holiday shopping done, and are a bit anxious about having to run around to find gifts … stop.

Take a moment, and a deep breath.

Here is a simple gift idea for you.

Shop in Oriental.

Reflection of holiday lights at Village Hardware.

For one, it lets you give a gift that is really close to home.

For another, it helps our little town’s economy.

Now and then we hear folks talk about driving miles and miles out of town so they can save a few bucks. Yes, these are trying economic times. But the economy affects Oriental’s businesses too and they have been feeling the downturn.

The “O” flag, a replica of the one which flew over the steamer Oriental before its shipwreck in 1862. Flags — and t-shirts and stickers — with the “O” are for sale at the General Store at Oriental Harbor Marina.

Economics is local. It takes a village to keep a village going.

Throughout the year, the businesses in Oriental are repeatedly approached by the various organizations and asked to ‘help out’ with a contribution for events or causes. If we go to the businesses asking for help… doesn’t it follow that we go to them to shop?

Inside the Village Food Emporium, one of many businesses in town that has gifts .. and gift certificates.

So in the remainder of this holiday shopping season, save yourself some time and gas money and buy at least some of your gifts here in town. Make a point of stopping in at a shop that haven’t visited in a while. Venture in to the ever growing number of art galleries in Oriental, and see what the artists are up to. Check out the Farmers’ Market on Saturday for gifts that are as locally made as can be. You can even find some gifts at the History Museum.

Here’s just a small sample of what you can find if you do…

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Food For Thought, Something To Savor

For the coffee drinker on your list, The Bean is selling gift combos with T-shirts and mugs. Can’t remember if they like their coffee cream -no-sugar or skinny-latte? There’s always a Bean gift certificate.

The porch of the Bean, gussied up for the holidays.

That certificate option is available at a number of other places in town. Paul at Village Hardware says you can get a gift certificate there. Ditto, says Jimmy at the Provision Company.

The Village Food Emporium is selling all sorts of delicacies, and Bama also has gift certificates (great for when you’re not quite sure which Artisinal cheese to give.) Over at The Silos, Keri and Doug DeLisle have $25 gift certificates — and are charging just $20 for them in the month of December.

The Silos.

Gift Certificates For Every Occasion, Even Ones You Haven’t Thought Of

If you have friends or family planning a visit here, River Neuse Suites has rooms and Jackie Wall at the front desk says they have certificates to cover all or even just part of the stay. If you want to give a relaxing B&B stay, Durl and Debbie Evans at the Cartwright House have gift certificates, too.

Body Balance Studios has lots of yoga-related items for sale, and Susan Koepp is selling coupons good for private sessions and merchandise. Brenna Wilcox at Oriental Healing Arts is offering gift certificates for massages and Reiki and all kinds of energy work.

Check out the salons, too. Georgie’s and Village Spa and Salon will let you buy a friend a haircut or salon session.

Buying boat bits for someone else’s boat can be daunting. Enter, the gift certificates that are advertized on a sign at Marine Consignment of Oriental. (They’re also selling Betty Brown calendars.)

Many businesses, even ones you might not expect, will sell a gift certificate. For instance: Deaton’s Yacht Service. (Think of that as helping a friend with their boat work without breathing in the dust…) And Elizabeth Cordes says Oriental Dental can arrange a gift certificate, too. (The dental floss bow is optional…)

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Giving A Bit of Oriental This Year

There are now almost half a dozen art galleries where you can buy locally made art. Circle 10 has a good supply of dragon art from their recent dragon show, as well as non-dragon pottery, paintings and photos.

Circle10 is one of several Oriental art galleries with local works inside, but it may be the only one with a dragon guarding the door. The gallery is selling scales for the dragon as a fundraising project (which offers yet another gift possibility.)

Village Gallery on Hodges.

Village Gallery’s artists have also been ramping up with lots of selections for the holidays, as have Gil and Laura at Hodges Street Studio. And if you’re just not sure exactly what art to buy, they all say they’ll sell gift certificates.

Oriental’s History Museum is selling necklaces made from bits of china and crockery that Grace Evans has been collecting for years from the waters off of town.

Shards from the Neuse turned in to necklaces.

Since we mentioned the necklaces the other day, they’ve been going fast. The Museum is also selling T-shirts, mugs, trivets and books, including one about the Steamer Oriental — which has everything the history buff on your list could ever want to know about the ship and shipwreck that gave Oriental its name.

Booklet by Oriental Steamer researcher Lou Ostendorff. It’s available at Oriental History Museum as well as at the Inland Waterway Provision Company.

Gifts That You Don’t Have to Wrap

For the person who has everything — and no room for any more things — may we suggest, a brick? Oriental’s Old Theater is reviving its Buy a Brick fundraising campaign, in which a name is engraved in a red brick and then placed in the sidewalk alongside the theater.

Your name – or their name – here.

You can also give a bit of what goes on inside the Old Theater – tickets to some of the upcoming shows that the Pamlico Musical Society and others are presenting this winter and spring.

One gift that stands little risk of being re-gifted: the Ambulance Fund is selling the highly reflective number curbside plaques that help EMT’s find houses in a hurry.

Finally, the Oriental Farmers’ Market, as it does just about every Saturday of the year, offers up locally made, locally grown items.

Foods and crafts to give can be found at the Farmers’ Market. Here, Bonnie Cap sells ornaments made of cedar..

Whether you live in town or read this from afar, we hope you’ll visit — in person or on line — the businesses and galleries in Oriental. It’s the gift that keeps on giving…

Posted Thursday December 17, 2009 by Melinda Penkava