We’re very lucky. Holiday shopping on the Island is a whole different experience from shopping off-Island. It’s actually enjoyable! You bump into friends on the streets, you visit the small businesses you love, you stop for coffee or cocoa, and you walk back to your car – which isn’t parked in a giant tower at a mall with a line of cars waiting to get out. You might even pass a horse-drawn carriage on your way.

No, holiday shopping Vineyard-style is only partly about the gifts themselves. It’s mostly about the camaraderie and connection of living in a small community.

Of course, the gifts are pretty swell, too. Why go online to order what anyone, anywhere, can send anyplace? Instead, you can buy beautiful jewelry made by artists right here – or socks with the soft fibers of an Alpaca you may have visited this summer. Uber local? A freshly baked bread share. And when you visit our local bookstores, you can actually browse – and ask a real live bookseller for recommendations. (To give you a jumpstart, Molly Coogan, co-owner of Bunch of Grapes, has 12 suggestions.)

And for the Island history buff, Vineyard Gazette archivist and librarian Hilary Wallcox has the scoop on some beautiful new letterpress greeting cards, reprinted from metal plates found in the Gazette attic.

Don’t forget, if you can't decide on the perfect gift, many Island businesses offer gift certificates. And be sure to pick something up for yourself while you’re out shopping for others!

To view the gift guide, visit the PDF of this Holiday Vine issue (also posted on The Vine home page - and every page of the Vine - at top right) or pick up the print edition from your post office box or in your copy of the Friday, November 29 edition of the Vineyard Gazette.

Gift guide stories were contributed by Molly Coogan (books), Eat, Drink & Be Merry and Comfort & Joy (Laura Holmes Haddad), and Notecards for Giving (Hilary Wallcox).