- December 4, 2025
Brittny Lowe, Victoria Cattell Bass and Erin Taylor had a tent out at Frame of Mind's Shop Small Market. Lowe owns Bloom Guru and Twin Flame Collective, Bass owns Pangari Jewelry and Taylor harvest honey with her business Art.Plant.Love.
Meg Evans and Charlie Pooley held an event for Small Business Saturday at the Halifax Humane Society Thrift Store (Photos by Emily Blackwood).
Jeff Sidwell and J.D. Olander gave out a "Breakfast of Champions," a.k.a. Port wine and pancakes.
Maggie Puzey, an Ormond Beach native, came back down from Jacksonville to show her artwork at Frame of Mind's quarterly market.
I'll be the first to admit that most holidays I fall behind. Last minute tree picking, decorating and present shopping have been my personal traditions for God knows how long. But not this year.
This year, I broke the cycle.
Saturday morning I woke up with two goals in mind, 1) to get all my Christmas shopping done and 2) to not step foot inside a crowded mall. It was also Small Business Saturday, so I also wanted to attempt to buy all my gifts at local businesses — avoiding crowds altogether. Being the responsible, organized person I am, I knew I could handle it.
Spoiler alert: if I could ever handle anything, I wouldn't have a column.
Not wanting to backtrack, I came up with a map in my head (mistake #1) starting with the shops closest to the beach and working my way back down Granada. I first stopped by Gaslamp Gift Gallery to tell Kristin of my master plan. Being the supportive big sister I've never had, she wished me luck — after joining me for a Port Wine and Pancake tasting at Bon Gourmet.
Having two or four samplings of wine at 10:17 a.m. might have been mistake #2.
After grabbing some gifts at Gaslamp (and having them professionally wrapped by Kristin because I have yet to master the art of tying bows), I bounced around beachside, making at least seven U-turns because unsurprisingly the map I made in my head was very off.
Around 1 p.m. things started to get sleepy. As it turns out, wine has the opposite effect of a latte. Already spending too much money on other people (I'm such a good person), I resorted to the sugar cookies left out by True Love Boutique. It's socially acceptable to snag a few for later, right?
I stumbled back into Gaslamp to give Kristin an update and pick up one more item that I had forgotten to buy.
"You look tired," she said sympathetically after offering me a marshmallow. Needless to say, I was not looking forward to the crash from this four-hour long sugar rush.
In my mind, I had five stops left before I was done. Always one to overdo it — and then regret overdoing it — I slowly nixed a few difficult ideas, made some simple adjustments and went to just one more store.
Seven hours, five sugar cookies, a half of an old bagel, 15 U-turns, and one car nap later, I was home. My body felt defeated, but inside I was victorious. Because for the first time in my entire life, I had beat Christmas.
Now hopefully Kristin will agree to wrap the rest of my presents.
