🎁 How to slay your holiday shopping

💝 It’s no small feat to earn the title of “Oprah’s Favorite Things.” But this year, not one, not two, but FIVE Mass. companies made the cut, including a chocolate shop, a super-soft blanket, a mini boardgame, and more. 

👀 What’s on tap today:

Up first…

They say that the best gifts are the ones you make yourself. But let’s be real, who has time for that? 

For this month’s edition of small biz telephone tag, we asked the folks behind the area’s best gift shops about their go-to gifts and their favorite places to find them. 

Here’s what they said: 

🎁 Boston General Store loves Curio Spice Co. April Gabriel, the owner of Boston General Store in Brookline, said a holiday gift should never feel “like a burden,” which is why she likes to give consumables. Her go-to? Something from Curio Spice Co. in Cambridge, Boston Public Market, and the Snowport. “You can use spices in so many ways … It’s an easy thing someone can appreciate,” she said. If you’re stuck on what to get, Gabriel suggested a specialty salt and pepper (this magic salt and lemon pepper look great), some tiny spoons, and a cookbook to tie it all together.

🌶️ Curio Spice Co. loves Pod. When Curio founder Claire Cheney is gifting, she gravitates toward items that are “nature-inspired,” i.e. something “made from natural objects or in the shape of something natural … that increases your appreciation of the natural world.” For decades, she’s been getting those objects from Pod, a little shop in Cambridge that sells everything from homeware to clothes to skincare. If you have some cash to blow, this botanical candle fits the bill. On a budget? Try this adorable carrot fridge magnet or geranium hand cream.

🫛 Pod loves Patch NYC. “I love giving candles,” said Pod owner Julie Baine. “It's a really pleasant treat that people can engage with at home.” Her only rule: It HAS to be natural wax. But whether she’s buying a candle or just shopping around, there’s a good chance she’ll be doing it at Patch NYC in the South End, which she calls “innovative, surreal, refreshing, unexpected, and not co-signed by some influencer.” Grab a taper, a scented candle, or one of these cute little totes.

💝 Patch NYC loves Bittersweet Violet. John Ross, co-owner of Patch NYC, likes to gift “treats someone wouldn’t necessarily buy for themselves,” especially something that appeals to your sense of “smell, taste, [and] touch.” Think: a beautifully packaged chocolate, a soft throw blanket, or a great smelling candle. This year, he’ll be hitting up Bittersweet Violet, a chocolate shop in the South End that’s “dangerously” close to Patch NYC. Pick up a few chocolate turtles for a little treat. For something more upscale, try this box of assorted goodies.

🥳 A B-Side b-day shoutout is in order … to the gal who wrote this newsletter! Everyone please give a virtual birthday hug to B-Side’s newsletter writer Gia Orsino. She’s got a gift for sniffing out the weird and wonderful stories you read in One Last Thing, loves a good pair of barrel jeans, and is the textbook definition of a pleasure to have in class. If you want your own B-Side b-day newsletter shoutout, respond to this email!

Now, onto our regularly scheduled programming …

🍩 POV: It’s midnight after a game at Fenway and you’re craving something sweet — so you head down the block to Back Door Donuts for a little pick-me-up! Open from 7 p.m. to 2 a.m. (and available on DoorDash), it’s the perfect spot for a late-night sugar fix. Order a classic Boston cream donut or snag their famous apple fritter at their Boston pop-up, no trip to Martha’s Vineyard needed. Trust us, it’s just as good as the TikToks say. Try them for yourself.

📝 Mass.’ new economic development bill is signed, sealed, delivered. Gov. Maura Healey officially inked the bill into law Wednesday. Some of the big-ticket items include: investments in ClimateTech and AI, language to finally get a move on the Revs stadium in Everett, renaming the Seaport’s convention center after former mayor Tom Menino, making ticket sellers disclose added fees upfront, creating a new tax credit for local theater productions, allowing craft beer sales at farmers markets, and a lot more. What didn’t make the cut? Happy hour. Of course.

🎓 Tuition-free universities are becoming a micro-trend. This week, MIT and Brandeis became the latest local schools to let income-eligible students attend them tuition-free. Brandeis is setting the tuition-free bar for families that make $75,000 a year or less. Tuition (currently $87,000/year) will also be cut in half for those making less than $200,000. MIT, on the other hand, is bringing out the big guns: It’s now covering full tuition ($85,000/year) for students whose families make less than $200,000 a year, up from its previous bar of $140,000.

📚 BU has some bad news for humanities girlies. The school announced it won’t be accepting PhD students in over a dozen humanities and social science fields next year, including English, philosophy, history, and political science. The school said the move is part of a strategy to “re-envision these programs to allow for their long-term sustainability,” but q’s are swirling around whether it’s connected to the recently ended seven-month grad worker strike. Especially considering some foreshadow-y emails to the College of Arts and Sciences.

🏒 The Bruins’ head coach just got the boot. After a not-so-hot 8-9-3 start to the season, the B’s announced they’re axing coach Jim Montgomery midway through his third season with the team. Effective immediately. Despite his relative success with the franchise so far (he even won the NHL Coach of the Year in 2022), the B’s post-season flops and this season’s particularly sluggish start were reason enough for the team’s GM to reconsider his position. For now, assistant coach Joe Sacco will take the reins.

You might know about Lindsay Lohan’s string of holiday flicks or “Hot Frosty.” But we bet you haven’t heard of “Christmas on the Alpaca Farm” or “Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story,” both of which are real, legitimate movies being released this holiday season.

We didn’t know about them, either — until we went down the incredible rabbit hole of Boston.com’s near-exhaustive guide to this year’s 100+ new holiday movies. 

If you like Hallmark-style holiday movies, it can serve as a guide to help you pick the best ones. 

And if you don’t, it’s a perfect introduction to the absolutely wild world. We dare you to scroll down, pick a title, and watch a trailer. You (probably) won’t regret it.

— Written by Gia Orsino and Emily Schario

☃️ Thanks for reading! “Glicked,” who? I’m only watching “To Have and to Holiday.”

💜 Special shoutout to today’s sponsors, Back Door Donuts and DoorDash, for supporting local journalism and bringing top-tier dining experiences to Boston.

🐶 The results are in: It was a tight race, but 47% of B-Siders are dog people. One reader said: “I’m currently a practicing cat person … but am both a cat & dog person.”

💃 Keep up with us @BostonBSide on IG, TikTok, and Twitter. Send comments and suggestions to [email protected] or [email protected].