🎁 These gifts are *giving*

Happy Friday, Boston!

🚃 This is your official reminder that the (final!) Green Line shutdown kicks off today. And you can get five free Bluebikes unlocks during said shutdown with code MBTAGREENDEC in the app. Thoughts and prayers!

👀 What’s on tap today:

• The best places to work in Mass.

• Quincy’s food scene is popping off

• Wait. Is that … Zendaya?

Up first…

12 DAYS OF B-SIDE

These gifts will keep on giving

On the second day of B-Side, the newsletter gave to me … A slay local gift guide and a Boston holiday tree. 🎶

Let’s be honest, a lot of gift guides miss the mark. So, we put together our own list of local, affordable, cute gifts you can give/make/experience this holiday season (that we’d actually buy):

HOME

🍩 This Dunkin’ car freshener smells like fresh strawberries and coffee grounds ($8.99). 

🍅 A kitschy candle from Glass Ripples in Cambridge (like this gruyère- or olive-shaped one) ($27, $23).

🚃 A light-up MBTA train tracker that tracks the T in real time ($199). 

🌱 This snake plant from Uvida that’s apparently very hard to kill ($25.99).

🚇 An MBTA Red Line glass ornament that Gia gave Emily last year. ($16.95).

FASHION

👕 These artsy T-shirts will make the biggest MBTA hater in your life chuckle ($31).

🔑 A tiny sports logo charm to show your Boston pride. Add them to a thrifted jacket zipper, necklace, or purse ($3).

🎨 Customize your own piece with a screen printing sesh at Dark Mode ($45) or embroider something at Keeper (prices vary).

💎 Get matching permanent bracelets with your BFF, parent, or partner (starts at $60).

FOOD

☕ A little local treat like L.A. Burdick’s sipping chocolate, Hillside Harvest hot sauce, or a fancy spice mix from Curio ($28, $10.99, starts at $7.95).

📚 This “A Taste of Boston” cookbook includes recipes from the city’s most legendary chefs and restauranteurs ($50).

🍜 A supper club subscription from Comfort Kitchen or Flour, which sends multi-course meals from their kitchens right to your door (starting at $125/month, $85/month).

🧑‍🍳 Cooking classes at Sofra Bakery, Bakey, or Mei Mei Dumplings (a B-Side Certified pick) (prices vary).

EXPERIENCES

🏓 Try this pickleball club membership and never deal with full courts again ($50/month).

🚶 These Up and Adam food tours cover local neighborhoods’ best bites in an afternoon. This Union Square tour looks AWESOME (tours start at $55).

🫖 Splurge on an afternoon of high tea at the Boston Public Library, Beacon Hill Books & Cafe, or Silver Dove (prices vary).

🎭 Grab tickets to a holiday performance like our faves: The Slutcracker, the Urban Nutcracker, or Holiday Pops (prices vary).

QUICK QUESTION

🎁 Be honest: Would you rather only give gifts, or only receive gifts this year?

CITY

Quick & dirty headlines

🏆 They say there’s no such thing as a “dream job” … But if there were, it’d probably be at one of the companies in Globe Magazine’s annual “Top places to work in Massachusetts” issue. The issue includes lists, broken down by company size, ranking the top 25 places to work based on how they were rated by employees on leadership, values, training, benefits, and more. This year, top companies included Fisher Agencies, Senior Living Residences, Lamacchia Realty, and SEI - Boston. You can check out the full lists here (and maybe do some job hunting).

❄️ Does half an inch count as our first snow of the season? Because that’s what Boston got in Thursday’s wintry blast. Thanks to a last-minute forecast shift, some of Eastern Mass., including much of Greater Boston, got a dusting of snow despite being promised mostly rain — but it didn’t last for long. Of course, that’s nothing compared to our pals way out in Savoy, Mass., who got 10 inches, or even Worcester, which got 6.6 (as of Thursday evening). But hey, these days, we’ll take what we can get.

🚘 Rideshare workers are READY to unionize. ICYMI: Ballot question 3’s passage will allow rideshare drivers to unionize in Mass. starting next month, and on Wednesday, many gathered at the Department of Labor to announce the formation of the new App Drivers Union. Organizers will ultimately need signatures from 25% of “active” drivers (who have completed over the median number of rides in the past six months). While the union didn’t give specific numbers, they say that thousands of drivers have already signed.

😋 Quincy’s food scene is giving Boston a run for its money. Diversity, affordability, and really, really good food: These are just a few reasons that Quincy’s food scene is popping off. In the past few years, the city has seen a swell of hot new restaurants — including James Beard contenders and “national best restaurant of the year”-level spots like Rubato and Lê Madeline. Chefs like the area for its relative newness on the scene, accessible liquor licenses, and diverse roots, whereas customers are loving the prices and vibrant food. 

THINGS TO DO

Weekend plans

🎶 Pop off at Boston’s best holiday concert. Specifically, the Holiday Pops. This holiday concert tradition at Symphony Hall is officially underway, where you can hear all the Christmas classics, sing your heart out, and even see Santa. 

🎄 Get lit at the Seaport. And by lit, we mean, watch the Seaport’s annual tree lighting tonight. There will be live music, Betty the Yeti sightings, and treats!

💃 Grab that “me espresso” and your PJs … ‘Cause we’re heading to Trident Booksellers for a Sabrina Carpenter PJ Party on Saturday. Expect a screening of the pop star’s “Nonsense Christmas” on Netflix, classic sleepover games, and a “Nonsense” outro competition.

🎅 Strap on your best Santa suit. Sure, SantaCon might be a liiittle cringe. But it’s also kind of canon. Soooo, consider this permission to cringe it up at this local SantaCon on Saturday.

🚶 Start your holiday stroll engines. Unfamiliar? Imagine: A walk + small biz shopping + special snacks. Tick off all three at the Speedway’s stroll, Union Square’s, and Open Newbury Street this weekend.

🐶 Snap a pup pic with Santa. Old Saint Nick himself will be posting up at Park-9 Dog Bar on Saturday and Sunday for, you guessed it, pictures with you and your dog. Pics are free with any kind of donation to Shultz’s Guest House!

❤️ Support BIPOC businesses this holiday season. And it’s pretty easy given there’s a BIPOC holiday market at Mei Mei Dumplings and the cultural survival bazaar at The Pru this weekend.

🎥 Level up your annual viewing of “Elf.” Alamo Drafthouse is throwing a handful of “Elf” movie parties on Sundays this month. You’ll find games, fun props, a gift "wrap off" before the film, and your very own elf hat.

ONE LAST THING

Is that … Zendaya?

If you saw Zendaya on the street in Boston, would you recognize her? Well, the folks at local news outlet WCVB probably thought they could too, until they unknowingly featured her super prominently in some b-roll this week thinking she was just a random pedestrian.

But when @chlomance on TikTok was watching the 5 o’clock news, she realized pretty quickly that the woman shown strolling down the road in a segment on Open Newbury Street was Zendaya, who’s currently here filming a movie. So naturally, she made a video about it.

Since then, the clip has gained over 500,000 views, including from WCVB journalists, one of whom commented “thanks for letting us know!”

— Written by Gia Orsino and Emily Schario

📲 Thanks for reading! I’m telling you, she’s a Masshole now! I don’t make the rules.

🏆 The results are(n’t) in: We’re not telling you what won the B-Side award for best buzzy idea yet but, we will tell you that one reader who voted for late night T service said: “I should be in the club AND be able to go home after.”

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