Home decor items easily make great gifts, especially as hostess presents. We offer a few of our holiday favorites.
Capiz flower candle holder
Filipino artisans create these translucent candle holders from the shells of clams. A fair trade item, the candle holders are among novelties created by Saffy Handicrafts, a nonprofit that helps build the business skills of craftspeople. Line a cocktail table or a window sill with these light catchers. Available in green, white and blue and red. $28. Ten Thousand Villages. 4511 Olde Perimeter Way, Dunwoody. 770-399-9922
Patch NYC candles
With scents like “fedora” and “pipe,” these hand-poured soy candles probably should be called “man-dles.” Other fragrances such as “stag,” with its wintry notes from Siberian fir trees, want to evoke images of deer romping through snow. Expect them to burn for at least 72 hours. $37. Stanton Home Furnishings, 1194 Huff Road. Atlanta. 404-351-3890.
Karim Rashid Water Bobble jug
For the ultra-modern bedside table, this water carafe from the award-winning industrial designer filters 64 ounces of tap water. Its sleek design fits easily onto refrigerator doors, but it is cool-looking enough to leave out. In a range of happy colors. $30. Replacement filters cost about $10. www.target.com; www.waterbobble.com.
Vintage postcards
We concede that most people probably don’t do much with postcards since they can just update their Facebook statuses. That’s OK, because these reproductions of Vanity Fair magazine covers produced from 1913 to 1936 that include Art Deco paintings and Jazz Age renderings are striking enough to hang inside matted frames. Take six or eight of your favorites and mount them gallery-style in an entry way or a guest bath. The set of 100 4 1/2-inch by 6 1/2-inch cards is $25. Bookstores and www.amazon.com.
Tea boxes
Ballard Designs’ Mansion Tea boxes are too pretty to hide in a kitchen cabinet. Fashioned with a lion’s crest, the containers can hold loose tea on your dining table, office supplies on a desk or cotton balls in your bath. A set of two is $79. Ballard Designs, 1670 Defoors Ave. N.W. Atlanta. 1-800-367-2775 or www.ballarddesigns.com.
Herringbone throw
For spooning on the sofa or relaxing with a cup of hot chocolate, you really can’t go wrong with a throw. Meanwhile, it can soften a leather sofa, or bring a bit of an edge to a frilly settee. In stone white or denim acrylic, $59. Add $7 for the monogram. West Elm. Multiple locations or www.westelm.com.
