A Holiday State of Affairs

Changes to Santa Barbara’s State Street – recently reborn as a cozy, sun-soaked pedestrian promenade – have transformed the palm-lined commercial-and-arts district into an almost park-like destination for calming and convivial holiday shopping, the salt-scented, sparkling beach mere blocks away. Seriously. How do we love State Street over the holidays? Let us count the ways…

In 1965, The Sound of Music hit movie theaters, the Houston Astrodome opened for business, and Bob Bryant founded the beloved State Street destination that bears his family’s name: Bryant & Sons. Santa Barbara’s hometown jeweler deals in Panthère de Cartier, Mikimoto pearls, Breitling, Omega, and Baume & Mercier timepieces, and a hopeful little startup called Gucci. Bryant & Sons’ in-house gemologists and jewelry professionals will maintain your jewelry (heirloom and otherwise), and their goldsmiths will even create a dazzling piece according to your specifications and preferred materials. In the category “beloved and trusted community jewelers” – Bryant & Sons is a standout. 

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Moving Miss Daisy is a local service provider expertly addressing the needs of a cohort we all treasure – folks in their autumn years who need help downsizing and moving. As one would hope, Moving Miss Daisy is swaddled in certifications, licenses, and insurance assurances. A card-carrying member of the globe-spanning National Association of Senior and Specialty Move Managers (NASMM), Moving Miss Daisy is focused on your personal property, valuations, distribution, sale, consignment, auctions, and donations – and your peaceable relocation. Moving Miss Daisy makes downsizing and moving a loved one a peaceable and professional piece of cake. And who doesn’t like cake? 

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If you happen to be visiting Moving Miss Daisy’s Consignment & Auction House, swivel your noggin and you’ll see Daisy’s neighbor Furniture Gallery by Mattress Mike. In the annals of company names, this one surely takes the prize for product clarity. Family owned and operated since ‘94, FGMM has the sleep and comfort sector cornered. Mike’s sales floor is beautifully appointed with TEMPUR-PEDIC, Aireloom, American Leather, Fjord’s of Norway, Stressless, and other brands that have long signified an approach to rest and relaxation whose pricing won’t keep you up at night. FGMM’s sales floor is the approximate size of the Space Shuttle hangar, so if you love wandering thoughtfully amongst – and laying hands on – your prospective gift purchases, head on over.

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And speaking of sliding down the side of a massive ice-covered pyramid, Mountain Air Sports’ nature-embracing name says it all. Born in ‘75, MA Spurveys the brands Blundstone, Rossignol, Helly Hansen, North Face, Obermeyer, Hobie, Thule, Yakima,Salomon, Altra, Oboz, Sorel, and XTRATUF – to name a representative, interdisciplinary few of the gazillion brands they carry. Mountain Air Sports is Gift-Giving Central for that skiing, snowboarding, kayak-fishing, tousled, limit-teasing friend whose cluttered car-rack screams an all-season “get outside!” Footwear, beautiful/rough & ready clothing, skis & snowboards, racks, electric bikes, kayaks, swim stuff, camping gear, backpacking, daypacks, sunglasses, luggage… of course, you’re likely wondering: “But what about dog beds?” Yeah – dog beds, too. Mountain Air Sportsis a bewilderingly rich nature advocate disguised as a “store.” Luckily, they offer gift cards for we plebes who don’t know a Mirage Drive from a DIN setting. 

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Fashion and Fine Art with a View

On a more fashion-forward note, Catherine Gee has the immediate benefit of sounding like the title of a sweet old Beach Boys song (the achingly lovely “Caroline, No” to be exact), but is in fact an eponymous, nationally-lauded womenswear brand of local vintage. Gee herself launched her line in 2015 as an all-silk collection, and by the very next year won the WWD x Galeries Lafayette Paris 2016 Crème de La Crème Emerging Designer competition. Then in 2018 Gee walked away with Sportswear International’s “Best Travel” brand winner at the NYC trade shows. These two awards perfectly summarize the sartorial continuum that makes Gee’s designs so beloved – and stocked in over 220 retail stores across the U.S. Cozily ensconced in Santa Barbara’s bustling La Arcada, Catherine Gee rightly adjoins the town’s celebrated Museum of Art. Her Fall ‘23 collection features printed cashmere with vivid, artistic colors in crewneck and V-neck silhouettes. 

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In the realm of “art for art’s sake,” Waterhouse Gallery –co-owned by Diane and her husband, celebrated landscape painter Ralph Waterhouse – boasts a selection of fine art that uniquely speaks to the gallery’s exacting curatorial process. “I have to love it. I want to own it, and I want to hang it,” the disarming Diane once explained to an interviewer. Her intuitions have made Waterhouse Gallery an art lover’s must-visit since 1991, when Diane and Ralph took occupancy of their present La Arcada location. From Mark Laguë’surban cityscapes to Ellie Freudenstein’s sumptuous floral vistas, Waterhouse Gallery’s tastes in spellbinding work match our own, from the local to the universal. Is there any gift more lastingly marvelous than a singular work of art? That’s a rhetorical question. 

And if your taste is for fine artist depictions of our American Riviera? Santa Barbara Fine Art is, as it happens, exactly what its name suggests – and is as Santa Barbara-centric as the grand old Arlington Theatre with which the gallery rubs shoulders. SB Fine Art’s offerings are largely given to exquisite, museum-quality works depicting – yes – Santa Barbara and environs in all their alluring glory, from movingly familiar, gorgeously rendered downtown scenes and beachfront beatitudes, to SB’s wildflower-bedecked frontiers. Some of those museum-quality paintings may even be lovingly crafted from owner Richard Schloss – whose plein air paintings are featured in numerous collections found locally and afar. Operated with his wife Julie, the gallery also features further-flung western landscapes to soothe the viewer’s hurried soul. Santa Barbara Fine Art is known to be something of a salon (from the French “reception room”) where the lucky visitor can engage in conversation about art, sometimes with the creators themselves. Art is a gift. ‘Tis the season to literalize that sentiment. 

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Another gallery whose art is selection localized – Sullivan Goss: An American Gallery –buys andsells between 300 and 400 works of art every year, the austere and well-lit space focused on curation of American artists active between 1850 and 1975, and “contemporary American artists of note.” The list of artists whose work the gallery buys runs to nearly 300 names, and includes such giants as Rothko, de Kooning, and Lichtenstein. But Sullivan Goss’ contribution to SB’s art seeker is surely the gallery’s element of surprise. Theme and artist-based exhibitions number about 20 a year. Any unsuspecting pedestrian idly wandering into the place from a nearby restaurant will attest to having been positively stunned at what is found there. Sullivan Goss is a gift box of delicious surprises. 

Books, Hats, and Even the Rack to Put ‘em On

Another gift box of delicious surprises goes by the name “book,” and the treacly epigram “a book is a gift you open again and again” is as accurate as it is sentimental. Chaucer’s Books has been around since 1974, the bookstore’s namesake – reputed “father of English literature” Geoffrey Chaucer – since around 1343. Handwringing about the decline of reading won’t survive 10 minutes in Chaucer’s Books; every available inch of the place is tastefully crowded with paper, glue, and avid readers milling about with ardent expressions. Their newly published hardcovers section alone is sufficiently magisterial to lift the heart of the most downbeat defender of the written word. Chaucer’s carries some 150,000 titles and is otherwise the swirling galactic center of Santa Barbara’s literary universe. Gift someone a book this season, and throughout the year. Both Chaucers will thank you. 

Unless it is your habit to read stark naked (and who are we to judge?) you will also want to be thinking of swinging vêtements. Here’s an idea: Tendrel is located in the Funk Zone, as it should be. The boutique clothing shop works with a handful of charmingly eclectic brands you will not have seen at Sears. Iron Heart [flannels and denim], 3SIXTEEN [Japanese-produced fabrics + American craftsmanship], Ginew [Native American-owned denim collection], Battenwear [ “..from heavy outerwear and cozy sweats to beach-ready summer gear”], Freenote Cloth [brother-owned jeans, pocket T’s, Henleys, and denim], Mister Freedom [bitchin’ Ts, twill, and linen shirts], and Gitman Vintage [1932-founded contract shirt-makers reborn in 2008 as a self-styled brand]. Owned by a couple of married, sweet-looking adventurers (one of them a music biz escapee), Tendrel’s mellow cool is the perfect gift-giving vibe for your favorite fashion cynic. 

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At a glance, sbmidmod looks like a side salad of letters, but there is music in the snippet of rhythmic labeling. For some 20-plus years now, owner Tracey Strobel has been entranced byand immersed inmid-century modern design, and her shop is stuffed with “lighting, objects, and art,” much of it lovingly restored by Tracey herself. The cozy grotto she calls a shop is an enormous X on the treasure map carried by those whose gift-giving tastes run to the singular, and the singularly lovely. If mass-produced and over-familiar “stuff” gives you the gifting blues, sbmidmod is your antique/artisanal cup of tea.

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And Coast 2 Coast Collection? Thanks for asking. As its name suggests, the place is a blue-chip aggregator of some of the world’s most storied luxury brands. Their self-description is that of a “luxury gift and tableware boutique”; nomenclature that clearly understates their elegant and recherché proffer. Authorized dealer of such tony brands as Bernardaud, Christofle, Hermes, Lalique, Juliska, Match, Vietri, Waterford, Wedgewood, Chanel, Dior, Givenchy, and Miriam Haskell (to call out but a select few) – Coast 2 Coast even offers a special collection of autographed sports memorabilia. Unless you’re looking for a chili dog with the works, consider this your one-stop holiday luxury shop.

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When it comes to dressing your head (never thought of it that way, did you?) Grand Central Hats certainly lives up to its name. GCH gets its wool from Bolivia and Argentina, producing hand-made, felt-based hats that are as authentic as the old-world process that creates them. GCH also specializes in felt hat sizing, cleaning, refurbishing, and other bespoke detailing to do with your one-of-a-kind chapeau, no matter how old. “We are the only ones between L.A. and San Francisco who provide that service,” says owner Edgar, who with his wife launched Grand Central Hats in 2019. Honored to partner with Lucchese Bootmaker, the legendary 140-year-old Texas manufacturer, Grand Central Hats must be doing something right.Edgar sums up the magic: “We work hard, we try our best, and we care about quality.”

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As for beautiful things that sprang into being Once Upon a Time, these gathered objects accrue more character and charm with the passing years – at which point Ashley Fox steps in and brings her deep love of vintage goods and antiques to bear in her namesake store. The Vintage Fox offers antiques, enchanting vintage finds, home décor, and idiosyncratic gift items. The place is even located in one of Santa Barbara’s stately old Victorian houses. Vintage Fox also hosts estate sales, and even works with realtors to compellingly stage homes throughout Santa Barbara County. As author William Faulkner once famously noted: “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” Vintage Fox wonderfully brings the gentility and hand-made artfulness of the past glowingly into the present. 

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Yes, the past can be found to form the present in any number of ways. Take downtown Santa Barbara’s shopping and chilling destination La Arcada, for instance. In the wake of the devastating 1925 earthquake that leveled SB, superstar architect Myron Hunt designed and built (on the ruins of Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church) the delightful La Arcada – a “paseo” in keeping with Santa Barbara’s then-new Spanish Revival architectural identity. La Arcada is living history, and a throwback to when shopping was not an aspirin-fueled exercise in mall-marching, but a calming, cobbled, shade-dappled visit to restaurants, galleries, specialty shops, and spirit-soothing vino-pourers. The dusky month of December at La Arcada includes carolers, lamplight, ornate decorations, and enough holiday Victoriana to burnish your old-world vibe. This is “shopping” like a luxury foot massage is podiatry. Partake and breathe easy. 

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Where’s the olive oil, you ask? Take it easy, we got this. A scant two blocks away, Family-owned Viva Oliva is, as its name suggests, your one-stop for the highest quality extra virgin olive oils, as well as fused and infused olive oils. If “fused and infused” leaves you mildly confused, the happy folk at Viva Oliva embrace your epicuriosity. Viva Oliva offers the rustic culinary magic of small batch artisanal food producers “…whose passion for their work and trade is so clearly reflected in the flavor and quality of their products.” Owners Sven and Amanda Dybdahl also offer cookbooks, inspired pantry items, health and beauty products, tinned seafood delicacies, kitchen accessories – a selection of unusually cool gifts to melt the heart of your hardest-to-please foodie friend. Yes, it can be done. Let Sven and Amanda guide you.

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We would call The Yes Store a Santa Barbara institution if that word didn’t summon gray concrete and the whir of an air conditioner. The kaleidoscopic Yes Store has been convening Santa Barbara’s multivarious artist community under one retail roof for 56years. Fine jewelry, dazzling glassworks, visual art, unforeseen ceramics, warm woodwork, fragrant leather — the tranquil, home-grown gifts found in The Yes Store are not imports from a far-flung assembly line in Manufactureville (not a real place), but the output of actual artists living in our globally revered creative bastion. Now open year-round, The Yes Store trades in human creative expression. Added bonus: the hand-made objet d’amour you gift your dear pal will be the only one of its kind in the world. Just sayin’. 

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And speaking of deeply local, longstanding businesses – Hayward’s on Parker Way has a pleasant enough-looking shopfront. Step across the threshold, though, and you’ll enter a grin-producing 12,000-foot showroom containing a completist selection of patio furniture you will have tried and failed to imagine. Santa Barbara’s unreasonable meteorological blessings makes our town the perfect “outdoor living” Shangri-La. Hayward’s boasts a stunning and varied selection of furnishings for dining, seating, and lounging, shade-producing umbrellas and entertainment accoutrements, and – for those cocktail-sipping starry nights – conversation-warming fire pits. Hayward’s has been in town since 1890 (no, that’s not a typo), so of course the fifth-generation Hayward who runs the place has our beloved town – and your outdoor living aspirations – dialed in. Lounging outside is delicious. Doing that in style? Hayward’s.

Santa Barbara Interiors: Design firm? Retail space? Decorous idea incubator? Yep. Perfecting your beloved living space (or “home” in the friendlier parlance) can feel as fraught as summiting Everest. Let SB Interiors be your sherpa. Yes; if you ask, they offer personalized design and space planning consultation for both residential and commercial spaces. Yes, their sunstruck showroom – embraceable livingware, designer furnishings, fixtures, rugs, lighting, artwork – is so deliciously homelike they may have to drag you out of there at closing time. And yes, Interior Designer Colleen Macey and Santa Barbara Cabinet Company’s Thomas Mehling are there if you need them. Home is where the heart is. Santa Barbara Interiors can help you find the beat.

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Santa Barbara is summarized by sun, surf, glowing mountains, and the late Bud Bottoms’ beloved and town-defining dolphin statuary. The town’s State Street is likewise the exuberant and endlessly colorful gift-giving horn of plenty you would expect in an unlikely place like Santa Barbara. Grab a java, tipple a little wine, explore. See you there.

If you need a little more help on what to look for this season, scan this QR code for more gift ideas!