NEW YORK — This Christmas, make an early New Year's resolution: I will not bring home T-shirts made in China as souvenir gifts from my travels.
Instead, when you're looking for something to bring home to family and friends, seek out locally made items. And consider sticking to products that can be used up — think edibles or cosmetics — so that you don't add to all the stuff people already have clogging up shelves and closets.
If you're stuck home this year and can't do your shopping in far-flung locales, many products can be ordered online from the places they are made. This lets you give a friend or relative a reminder of a beloved place even if you haven't been there, whether it's a hometown or favorite vacation spot.
Often these types of gifts are also unique to their localities, like products made from fireweed, a colorful herb that can be seen growing tall by the roadside in Alaska. If you can't make it there before Christmas, fireweed soap, lip balm, teas and jams can be ordered from Denali Dreams and the Alaska Herb Tea Co.
Just remember that Transportation Security Administration rules apply to jams, syrups and other items brought home by plane. Either pack them in checked luggage, or if you're buying last-minute at the airport gift shop, observe the 3-1-1 guidelines (items under 3 ounces, in a 1-quart size clear zip-top bag, one bag per traveler). Many vendors make 3-ounce gift sizes for items like jam to help you get through the airport.
From Maine, don't forget fragrant pillows or sachets filled with balsam and fir, or classic balsam incense cones from Paine Products in Auburn. Wild Maine blueberry jam is another local favorite, from Stonewall Kitchen in York, Maine. From elsewhere in New England, Flax Pond Farms in Carver, Mass., sells cranberry soap, cranberry tea, cranberry candy and can ship boxes of cranberries.
If you want your gift to have a little spice, bring home hot sauce or Creole seasonings from New Orleans, or order some Aunt Sally's melt-in-your-mouth Creole Praline candies, which come wrapped, six or 12 to a box, in crushproof, nicely designed cardboard sleeves.
From Norway comes the iconic Bjorklund cheese slicer, designed by a Norwegian engineer in 1925. If you can't make it over, order from a Wisconsin company that imports nearly all of its wares from Scandinavia. And from Israel, a pack of Dead Sea Mineral Mud from Ahava Dead Sea Laboratories is perfect for a home spa day.
Above all, use your imagination to seek out something yummy or unusual that might transport the recipient to a beloved faraway place.
Ex. 1. Answer the questions:
1. What unique gift can a tourist bring from Alaska?
2. What items do Transportation Security Administration rules apply to?
3. What jam is another local favorite from Maine?
4. Where can you buy cranberry soap, cranberry tea or cranberry candy?
5. When was Norwegian iconic Bjorklund cheese slicer designed?
Ex. 2. Remember the following words and word combinations:
souvenir gifts; locally made items; favorite vacation spot; hometown; products made from fireweed; that Transportation Security Administration rules; rules apply to; pack; checked luggage; to buy last-minute at the airport gift shop; vendors; fragrant pillows or sachets filled with balsam and fir; local favorite; cranberry tea; melt-in-your-mouth Creole Praline candies; cheese slicer; to transport the recipient to a beloved faraway place.
Ex. 3. Make-up sentences using the following words. The first word is underlined.
1. Maine, pillows, From, filled, don’t, fragrant, balsam, forget, and, sachets, or, fir, with.
2. This, Christmas, resolution, New, Year’s, early, an, make.
3. Norway, iconic, From, comes, slicer, cheese, Bjorklund, the.
4. Wild, blueberry, another, Maine, favorite, jam, is, local.
5. cranberry, It, and, sells, soap, tea.
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