How to buy gifts from only Melbourne businesses this Christmas

It’s more important than ever to back Melbourne businesses — so here’s your go-to guide for shopping locally this festive season.

After a year that’s felt like a decade, time’s suddenly speeding up as we hurtle towards Christmas.

If Santa and his antlered assistants manage to make it into the country this year, the silly season is set to live up to its name.

So as we’re enjoying some much-needed festivities with family and friends, how can we support Melbourne businesses who’ve had a year they’d rather forget?

Here’s some ideas to spend your money where it really matters this Christmas.

CHRISTMAS GIFT IDEAS: Get your free copy of the Click for Vic Christmas Gift Guide in Saturday’s Herald Sun.

Owner Neil Cranston and employee Neale Drury pruning pine trees at Dandenong Christmas Tree Farm. Picture: Dannika Bonser

CHRISTMAS TREES AND DECORATIONS

Snap up a fir-dinkum Christmas tree at Dandenong Christmas Tree Farm, at the Christmas Tree Shop in Kew or through your local scout group.

Need a knitted plum pudding ornament or a Scandi Santa to hang on the tree? Etsy seller Hello Little Life has you sorted.

CHRISTMAS CARDS

Ditch the generic cards and head to Able and Game, whose offbeat cards offer up greetings such as “Wishing you Christmas conniptions”, “Merry Stressmas” and “Merri Christmas” (a nod to Merri railway station).

For other very Aussie cards featuring hairy wombats and good-lookin’ kookas, head to Melbourne artist and illustrator Sarah Hardy’s website, PopcornBlue.

CHRISTMAS WRAPPING PAPER

If funds permit, check out the sustainable, Melbourne-made gift paper at Inky Co.? Plus, awesome wrapping paper makes any old present look more impressive.

CHRISTMAS CRACKERS

Melbourne online store Purely Christmas is selling eco-friendly ‘tropical koala’ bonbons to brighten up your Christmas table.

The gifts inside are plastic-free, and each cracker also contains a silly hat, a snap, and a joke (hopefully a cringey one in the interests of tradition).

For a tasty bon-bon with a difference, get your mitts on Earl’s Christmas cookie dough version, ready to be baked at home. Choose from raspberry ripple and pistachio or the Callebaut choc chip, walnut and sea salt for the gift that keeps on giving.

FESTIVE FOOD

Queen Victoria Market is very much open for business, so grab your green bags and head in for fresh Christmas Day prawns and cheese platters. Or look up your closest farmers’ market for up-to-date opening hours.

For freshly made fruit mince tarts, pop into Noisette, in Port Melbourne or Bentleigh, who also create gingerbread houses and chocolate Christmas wreathes. (For a non-edible Christmas wreath, feast your eyes on Petal Provedore’s floral offerings).

Hit up Queen Victoria Market for your freshest Christmas prawns and cheese platters. Picture: Sarah Matray

For Christmas puds, try The Essential Ingredient, or scan the aisles in most major supermarkets for Ray’s Plum Puddings, produced by a long running family business in Essendon North.

If you’re hosting Christmas at your house this year, and want to let someone else do all the hard work while you kick back and take the credit, slide on over to local catering company Cookes.

WINE, BEER AND SPIRITS

Just out of metropolitan Melbourne, Healesville’s Four Pillars Gin has released its annual Christmas gin, made with Christmas puddings and aged in muscat barrels.

Back in the city limits, Little Lon Distilling Co., possibly the smallest distillery in Australia, offers boutique bottles of gin and party cocktail packs.

If you want to try your Christmas Day wine before you buy, head to a tasting at Rouleur Wine’s urban cellar door in North Melbourne.

For those looking to dodge a hangover, give UpFlow’s non-alcoholic beers a guzzle, or get on to the kombucha at Brunswick’s The Good Brew Company.

CHRISTMAS TUNES BY MELBOURNE MUSICIANS

Melbourne band Kingswood has just released A Kingswood Christmas on CD (old school!). It’s their take on 12 Christmas classics, including Silent Night, Winter Wonderland and White Christmas, with all proceeds going to Beyond Blue.

Or if you miss live music, go the whole hog for your next Christmas bash and book a musician through Victoria University’s music booking agency.

Children get close to Malu - orang-utan at Melbourne Zoo. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

MELBOURNE-THEMED CHRISTMAS GIFTS

Let’s be honest, 2020 has been as dull as 100 Dan Andrews press conferences in a row. So why not give the gift of experience?

For $20, you can get a Secret Santa Special voucher from Laneway Learning and treat a workmate to a class in crochet, life mapping or kokedama (Japanese moss ball) making.

Treat the kids to a Zoos Victoria membership, or your little (or large) thrill seeker to a visit to Belgrave’s rope and ziplining experience, Trees Adventure.

Shout your other half to a private golf lesson with a PGA pro in Albert Park, or treat a mate to an hour or two of kayaking along the Yarra River.

READ MORE:

36 VICTORIAN EXPERIENCES THAT MAKE IDEAL CHRISTMAS GIFTS

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Want to remind your interstate or overseas friends that Melbourne is still one of the best cities going around? Melbournalia, operating online-only for the moment, has all the non-cheesy gifts you need, from toy trams, to espresso cups and a Melbourne ‘four seasons in one day’ tea towel.

And don’t forget to throw your pooch a bone this Christmas, by fetching your furry friend a festive sack, bow tie or bandana at Handmade for Hounds.

For more great gift ideas, go to Click for Vic.