This holiday season, consider shopping small, and getting your holiday gifts from local businesses. Not only are gifts from small shops homemade, but by shopping small, you can support the local businesses that give State College its charm. So, let this article be a guide to the best stores to shop small (in a small town) this holiday season.

For your friends who are interested in art, there are several different types of stores that contain great gifts for you to shop from. For example, Uncle Eli’s Artist Marketplace (located on 129 E Beaver Ave) is a great place to shop for painting and sketching materials, including notebooks, paints, paintbrushes, and pencils. And along with art supplies, Uncle Eli’s carries a number of eccentric gifts that may not be readily available in big-box stores. For the music lover in your life, check out Chronic Town (located at 224 W College Ave), a cozy record store and cafe that carries all the vinyls you could possibly imagine.

Next up on the list is Love It boutique (1356 E College Ave), Connections (130 S Allen St), and Plato’s Closet (1526 N Atherton St). These are all great places to shop for clothing if you have a friend or relative who likes fashion. Both Love It and Plato’s Closet are resale stores, so they would be helping the environment by reusing as well. Connections is also a remarkable store because it includes the newest fashions, and everything there is unique and beautiful.

Stores like Kitchen Kaboodle (104 W Beaver Ave), The Makery (123 S Fraser St), Tigers Eye (133 E Beaver Ave), Ethereal (216 E College Ave), and Nittany Quill (111 S Fraser St) are great places to buy little knick knacks. Kitchen Kaboodle sells homemade trinkets for both you and your home—such as decorations, pillows, and others. Ethereal sells comfortable, older fashion clothes, accessories, and crystals. Tigers Eye, located in Webster’s Bookstore Cafe, is a great place that has vintage finds, with the selection ranging from retro clothes to vintage home accessories that are great grabs to spruce up your home.

Have a food lover in your family? Tait Farms (179 Tait Rd) and Cake Shop by Tati (113 E College Ave) are great places to shop. They have gift cards, jams/jellies, sweets, and more. Webster’s (133 E Beaver Ave) and Bees Knees Coffee (114 E College Ave) are great places to shop for someone who loves tea or coffee (I personally recommend Mulled Wine at Websters).

Last, but certainly not least, for the board game lovers in your family/friend group, there is Master Goblin Games (234 E College Ave Suite D) and Comic Swap (110 S Fraser St). Both are great for D&D (Dungeons & Dragons) players.

But above where you shop, the most important part of gift-giving is the thought you put into the gift. Though it’s better to shop from locally owned stores and provide business to small business owners, it doesn’t matter what gift you give or where it’s from—what matters is the thought put into the gift.