5 Fast Last-Minute Holiday Gift Ideas

AAAH! With Christmas upon us, you’re seriously short on time for gift-buying. And forget about shipping. You need presents to give and you need them now.

But fret not. Read on for five fantastic and fast holiday gift ideas.

Membership at a Favorite Brooklyn Cultural Institution

Just sign up online, print out the membership confirmation and slip in a festive card. Memberships to the Brooklyn Museum start at $60 and include yearlong unlimited access to the museum, and exclusive invites to openings and other special events. A membership to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden — with unlimited entry, sunset picnics, guest passes, Garden Cocktail Nights and more — starts at $50. Memberships to the Brooklyn Academy of Music start at $85 but get you a whole host of goodies — mainly discounted film and theater tickets.

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Fabulous Monthly Food Club Subscriptions

For just $50, Dumbo-based indie food retailer Mouth will deliver monthly packages of some of the best independently made food around. From $105-420, you can get your loved one a subscription to Stinky Brooklyn‘s Beer of the Month Club — featuring a curated selection of the best international brews.

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Gift Cards to Cool Brooklyn Classes

A Brooklyn Brainery gift certificate is easy to buy, print and give — and you can spend anywhere from $10 to $5 million. When presenting this gift, we suggest you include a list of a few classes you think the giftee might enjoy — like cryptography, historic cocktail-making, or online dating tips and tricks. Brooklyn Kitchen also has some killer classes worthy of giving, with gift certificates starting at $100. Another delectable option is to give a chocolate-making class at Raaka Chocolate. For $50, students learn the ins and outs of cacao and leave with three bars they made themselves.

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Make Your Own Curated Brooklyn Gift Basket

If you have at least a spare hour or so, you might want to just pop on down to your local gourmet grocery or gift shop, buy a few goodies, and throw them in a basket or a box tied with a bow. BKLYN Larder in Prospect Heights has a selection of fresh and canned/bagged foods. Annie’s Blue Ribbon General Store has a quirky selection of useful and funny little geegaws. Seriously though, a bottle of wine, a box of fancy crackers, some artisanal spreads and a basket is all you need for a sweet gift.

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Subscriptions to Brooklyn-Based Magazines

Here’s another option in the buy-print-give category. A magazine subscription can keep your giftee happy for a year — and there are a number of excellent Brooklyn-based options to choose from. For the literarily curious set, Cabinet Magazine is a must-have. Dads could get Kindling Quarterly. Brooklyn Magazine itself recently changed to printing 12 issues a year.

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Related Stories
Brownstoner’s 2015 Holiday Gift Guide
7 Ways to Celebrate the Holidays in Brooklyn
9 Ways to Give Back in Brooklyn This Holiday Season and Beyond

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