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Tis the season for shopping! Recognizing this may not be a pastime you particularly enjoy, we've gone ahead and done some browsing for you. Listed below are 20 great gift ideas, all of them unique, made in Hawaii and priced at $20 or less so they won't break your budget.
20 great gift tips for $20 or less can
help the holiday budget go fartherIn anticipation of the holidays, we present
this series of gift ideas every day this week.By Cheryl Chee Tsutsumi
Special to the Star-BulletinFeatured here are items from each island. Most of the businesses provide shipping services for a fee. Call the phone numbers provided for more information.
1. At Fire It Up you can have fun playing Picasso and the special people in your life can start their collections with functional one-of-a-kind ceramics that you've painted.
Here's how it works: Choose what you'd like to paint from the store's ever-changing inventory of more than 200 items, including $2.75 kitchen magnets, $10 animal statuettes, $16 espresso cups with saucers and $18 dinner plates, to name a few. The prices include firing; paints; brushes; instruction; and use of stencils, stamps, textured sponges and other materials you may want to use for your designs. There's no time constraint; if you don't finish your pieces during your first visit, bring them back as many times as you want until they're completed. Items can be picked up five days after you turn them in for firing.
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Fire It Up also makes a unique venue for holiday parties; your guests can take home the pottery they painted as your gift to them! The shop can accommodate up to 35 people either before or after regular hours. Food and beverages are welcome; hosts have served everything from simple pupus to lavish buffets. Fire It Up also can organize ceramic-painting parties outside the store.At 3045 Monsarrat Ave. Call 924-4444.
2. Even those who don't usually find poi palatable love The Poi Company's baked goods, which include poi lavosh ($3.75 for 8 ounces), poi biscotti ($3.50 for 8 ounces), poi swirl bread ($3.25 for a 16-ounce loaf), poi cookies with macadamia nuts ($5.50 for a 6-ounce package) and poi cheesecake ($5 for 1 pound, 3 ounces).
Every product is made with poi, not taro flour, which connoisseurs say makes a big difference in taste. Christmas gift baskets and boxes combining a selection of poi items start at $15.
Brand-new from The Poi Company is freeze-dried poi ($8), which comes in a 7-ounce tin, looks like purple talcum powder and has a shelf life of one year. Mix the powder with water, microwave it and in a few seconds you have 1.4 pounds of "fresh" poi.
At 749 Kopke St. Call 847-4POI (4764) or (800) 943-6636 from the mainland and neighbor islands or shop on-line at www.the poicompany.com.
3. As more people have left Hawaii, there are more occasions to send lei to friends and family around the world. Greeters of Hawaii has been a lei industry leader for 40 years, but few know they can also add your personal touch to a gift of a lei. Whether it's a note, a bauble, an ornament, or a bag of truffles, you provide the items and they'll do the rest. They simply ask that you don't provide anything breakable, rare or expensive, as they won't be responsible for loss or damage. Lei prices vary, depending on the types of flowers selected and the intricacy of the design. Many of Greeters of Hawaii's three dozen options are priced at $20 or less, including Micronesian-style ginger, kukui nut and mock orange leaves, and vanda and dendrobium orchids.
Call Leimomi at 836-0161 on Oahu or toll free (888) 523-4487 from the neighbor islands or go online at www.greetersofhawaii.com.
4. Infants and toddlers will look adorable and chic in hand-painted "one-sies" ($14) by Skinny Dip, available at Native Books & Beautiful Things' Merchant Street and Ward Warehouse stores. The one-piece outfits are 100 percent cotton and come in newborn, small (12 months), medium (18 months) and large (24 months) sizes. Designs featuring honu (turtles); flowers; and playful combinations of wavy lines, teardrops, hearts and dots are rendered in bright, cheerful colors that will not fade. Because each pattern is individually done, no two are exactly alike. Also at Native Books are several handcrafted ornaments in the $10 range, among them artist Lisa Miller's patriotic menehune -- a little felt fellow waving a flag ($8).
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At 222 Merchant St. (599-5511) or Ward Warehouse (596-8885).5. You don't have to lug out any cookbooks the next time you want to impress dinner guests. Ceramic refrigerator magnets ($4.05) at Martin & MacArthur are imprinted with recipes for popular Island dishes such as oven kalua pig, lomilomi salmon and coconut pie. All the recipes have been tested, and novice chefs will be thrilled to find they turn out great every time!
There are Martin & MacArthur stores at Aloha Tower Marketplace (524-6066) and Ala Moana (941-0074) on Oahu; and at The Shops at Wailea (891-8844) and Whalers Village (661-0088) on Maui.
6. Spread Christmas joy Hawaiian style with hula ornaments -- ipu, puili, uliuli, pahu, bamboo nose flutes -- handmade by Jasmine Fontanilla of J and L Creations. Before launching her business, Fontanilla spent long hours at Bishop Museum, researching how the ancient Hawaiians made these instruments. She uses the same techniques for her intricate ornaments; for example, she splits bamboo for each puili and carefully ties lashings on each pahu. Measuring between 212 and 6 inches high, the ornaments are priced between $2 and $18.
Available at Bishop Museum's Shop Pacifica (848-4134 or online at www.bishopmuseum.org), Local to Da Max at Pearlridge Downtown (486-0306) and the Little Hawaiian Crafts Shop in the Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center (926-2662). You can also reach J and L Creations through the Pacific Handcrafters Guild, 254-6788.
8. Fasten a bow on a 22-ounce jar ($11) or a 16-ounce bag ($8) of Keith's Cookies, and you've got a delicious gift. The cookies come in 17 different flavors, ranging from favorites like almond and peanut butter to intriguing ones like lilikoi shortbread and poi and macadamia nuts.
You can find Keith's Cookies at 2130 N. King St. bakeshop (847-0355), Long's, Macy's, Local to Da Max (486-0306) and Pat's Island Delights at 98-450 Kamehameha Highway in the Waiau Shopping Center (484-8808). At Pat's you'll also find new items such as Ohia Ridge Chocolates, North Shore Farms Waialua sun-dried Tomato Dipping Oil and Molokai Roadside Creations meat marinade.
It's easy to spot the Honolulu Cookie Company's goodies on the store shelves because all seven delectable options are shaped like pineapples! What's more, the Pineapple Mac Nut cookie has a nugget of pineapple embedded in it, the Mango Mac Nut flaunts a morsel of mango and there's a coffee bean in the center of the Kona Coffee cookie. Chocoholics will swoon over the Triple Chocolate Fantasia, a chocolate cookie studded with chocolate chips and dipped in chocolate. Gift bags, boxes, jars and baskets of cookies start at $2.55, or you can stroll down the Cookie Buffet and create your own irresistible mix (minimum purchase is two dozen; cookies are priced from .29 to .50 cents each).
The Honolulu Cookie Company sells its cookies at 1717 Homerule St. Call 845-1517.
9. What about a gift of life that will endure long after the holidays have passed? Home Depot's garden department sells Native Hawaiian plants that can be easily rooted in your backyard or an attractive pot. Choose from pohinahina, ilima, kou, kukui, 'ohia lehua, maile, naupaka, and more, from $1.10 and up, depending on the type of plant and its size, which ranges from 4-inch cuttings to 6-foot-tall trees.
At 421 Alakawa (521-7355) and 98-1021 Kamehameha Highway (455-1200).
10. When you see the hand-painted plumeria, hibiscus and anthurium bowls ($12.90) from Nohea Gallery, you'll want to collect an entire garden of them. Each bowl is shaped like the flower it represents, and displays realistic colors and shadings. Measuring 5 inches in diameter and about 2 inches deep, they are the perfect containers for potpourri, paper clips, peanuts and candy.
The gallery is at Ward Warehouse (596-0074), Sheraton Moana Surfrider (923-6644), Ohana Reef Tower (926-2224) and Kahala Mandarin Oriental Hotel (737-8688). Web site: www.noheagallery.com
11. Bypass the bananas, apples, grapes and oranges this year and fill your holiday fruit baskets with exotic selections from Frankie's Nursery in Waimanalo. Rambutan, sapodilla, starfruit and jujube are among the luscious varieties that you can buy for .75 cents to $5.50 per pound. It's best to phone in your order at least one day in advance so it will be ready when you arrive. Here's a fun opportunity: If the fruit you want grows on small trees or shrubs, you're given a bag and allowed to roam through the orchards to pick it yourself.
Frankie's is at 41-999 Mahiku Place. Call 259-8737.
12. On the Big Island, Cook's Discoveries is like Santa's workshop, full of wonderful finds! One of the season's best-sellers is gingerbread ($7.50), made from scratch with hand-grated fresh ginger. This is really gingerBREAD, a fragrant 11-ounce loaf, not cookies. It contains no preservatives so it's not suitable for shipping to the mainland, but it's so ono, chances are it won't last long if you don't wrap and deliver it pronto to its intended recipient.
The gingerbread is available exclusively at Cook's Discoveries from Dec. 10 through 24 by special order. Call (808) 885-3633.
13. Cook's Discoveries also carries the perfect item for office workers: telephone message Pidgin Pads ($8) that sport a cute poi pounder and tapa design. Notations include Da Date, Da Time, Fo Who, Fone Numba, Fo Wat, Jus Checking Wat You Stay Doing, Go Try Call Back, Came By Fo Bahdah You, Going Kom Back Bumbye and Like See Your Face. Each packet contains three pads in beigebrown and light greendark green.
14. Polished iliili stones ($3.50 to $5) hand-engraved with petroglyph designs such as sailing canoes, turtles and chanters holding ipu make unique paperweights, decorations and accents on houseplants. Available exclusively at the Big Island's Kealia Ranch Store, the stones range from 1-12 to 4 inches in diameter.
Call (808) 328-8744 or go online at www.kealiaranch.com.
15. Kealia Ranch Store's coffee jelly ($3.95 for a 4-ounce jar) definitely will perk up your taste buds. Actually made with Kona's robust world-renowned coffee, it has the consistency of Jell-O and is the deep color of roasted beans. Forgo your usual strawberry preserves and you'll be hooked; the coffee jelly is fabulous on toast, rolls, biscuits, muffins, even pancakes and waffles.
16. Pamper the ladies in your life with Kopa Haiku cream soaps in tropical scents such as gardenia, plumeria, coconut mango, tuberose, pikake and papaya. Palm oil, coconut oil and kukui nut oil make these handmade soaps extra rich. Na Mea Hawaii on Maui offers them as a set of six 3-ounce bars in a chiffon bag with satin ties ($11).
Call (808) 661-5707.
17. Maui artist Sandy Hinkel's handmade paper is so pretty it could be framed. She makes the paper at her Wailuku home from cotton, banana leaf and linen fibers that she boils on her stove, beats on rocks and dyes in her sink. Pressed into the textured sheets are small, delicate flowers and leaves that she gathers from her yard, including lokelani, ilima and bougainvillea. The paper is colored with pastel dyes -- pink, off-white, lavender, orange and green -- that Hinkel concocts with these plants and larger, heavier blossoms like plumeria and hibiscus. She then hand-sews parchment over the paper; notes are written on the parchment, with the tinted floral paper serving as a lovely background.
Hinkel's cards in packs of six with envelopes ($20) can be found exclusively at Maui Hands in the Kaahumanu Center. Call (808) 877-0368 or visit www.mauihands.com.
18. The coconut was a valuable resource to the ancient Hawaiians. They used the trunk of the tree to make canoes and drums; the leaves for thatching; the fibers of the husks for rope; and the meat, milk and juice for sustenance. They made needles from the midriffs of the leaves, and rakes from the dried flower clusters. Modern-day craftsmen still celebrate the coconut's versatility; admire the Kauai Products Store's impressive line of coconut products, including earrings ($5), bracelets ($5), chopsticks ($7), soapdishes ($7.50), teacups ($8.50) and bowls ($8.75). For just a few dollars more than our $20 limit, you can even purchase a coconut teapot! And handmade, hand-painted wooden puzzles ($15) shaped like fish and turtles will keep even the most active keiki occupied for hours.
Call (808) 246-6753.
19. Kamakana Gallery in Kaunakakai spotlights the creations of talented Molokai artists like 90-year-old Juan Narvessa, who despite being deaf and almost blind, weaves fine lauhala items. Although his hats exceed our $20 price limit, you can purchase his dainty lauhala bracelets for $8. The shop also offers lauhala reindeer ornaments ($7.25), lauhala earrings ($8.50 to $20), lauhala checkbook covers ($12) and lauhala trivets ($15). And look for drop earrings ($8.50 to $20) fashioned of wiliwili, monkeypod, maunaloa, Job's tears, coconut, manila palm and other seeds. Exhibiting the rich colors of the earth, the seeds are gathered from Kalaupapa and the lush east end of Molokai.
Call (808) 553-8520 or visit www.kamakanagallery.com.
20. Nat Fujimoto's handmade raku pendant necklaces strung on adjustable black silk cords ($20) are eye-catchers at Gifts With Aloha on Lanai. Fujimoto fires her pendants by directing flames at them for 30 minutes with a large blow torch. Temperatures rise to an intense 1,400 degrees F., but the clay she uses for her raku is heavier than regular clay and contains granules of sand to help conduct the heat evenly. Fujimoto's color choices are primarily green, blue and gold with a metallic sheen that reflects the radiant beauty of the tropics. The glazes and high heat produce a "crackled" effect-fine spider web-like lines on the surface of the pendants, whose shapes range from rectangles to fans to ovals.
Call (808) 565-6589.
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