Gift Guide

G&G’s 2023 Holiday Gift Guide

A seductive field bike, blackberry pie candles, a must-sip bourbon—ideas for every Southerner on your list

A green motor bike with wrapped Christmas presents topped on the back

Slay Ride

No Southern terrain is too tough to traverse aboard the retro-cool Honda Trail125. The low-slung design handles effortlessly (and relatively quietly) on and off road—thanks to a suspension that smooths bumps—the raised muffler stays clear of mud and muck, and there’s plenty of ground clearance. A flat cargo rack holds more than forty pounds of gear and (hopefully) game to haul home. ($3,999; powersports.honda.com)


A silver patterned money clip with a two dollar bill above it

On the Money

Keep your walking-around cash close with this engraved sterling-silver clip from the Texas artisans at Clint Orms ($550; clintorms.com).


A brown guitar standing upright

Old-Time Music

For Rufus Thames of RJ Thames and Co. in Bristol, Virginia, nothing beats the sound of a 1930s acoustic guitar. The luthier crafts his custom instruments, favored by such pickers as Bryan Sutton and Billy Strings, using the same hand-carving techniques and woods employed back then, such as Appalachian red spruce. “Heritage and inspiration permeate the air here,” he says, “and I am lucky enough to breathe them in every day in my workshop” ($6,000–$7,000; 423-366-3548).


A white cake with a slice cut out to show layers of caramel and vanilla cake, and a blue-green tin behind it with the cake logo. The sides of the cake have a light green toile pattern printed on them

Dessert Rose

The Texas native, fashion designer, and entertainer extraordinaire Lela Rose puts her stamp on the beloved caramel layer variety at Caroline’s Cakes—specifically her Reyrosa Toile pattern, applied to the buttercream ($80; carolinescakes.com).


A part of a flyfishing rod and reel on a red and gold background

Super Fly

Orvis’s eight-foot, five-weight 1856 bamboo fly rod, shown here with a Battenkill reel ($99), hearkens back to another era but delivers modern performance, year after year, river after river ($4,498; orvis.com).


Top Gear

Like the Curtiss P-40 Warhawk, the workhorse World War II fighter plane that inspired its design, Breitling’s latest pilot’s watch in its Classic Avi series is both tough and stylish, with forty-eight hours of reserve power and topstitched straps that tip a cap to vintage flight gear ($5,800; breitling.com).


A bottle of bourbon with a filled rocks glass on a red backrgound

Perfect Pairing

A fail-safe Southern gift hack: Give a bottle of Forbidden ($130; bourbonoutfitter.com), the new bourbon from Kentucky’s first female master distiller, Marianne Eaves, and a couple of Vietri glasses ($18 each; vietri.com).


Two candles that look exactly like a blackberry pie and pineapple upside-down cake. The pie candle has four lit wicks

Buffet of Fun

Who needs another fir-scented candle when you could put John Derian’s Cereria Introna epicurean delights on the sideboard instead? The shop’s cheeky choices include blackberry pie and pineapple cake ($38–$72; johnderian.com).


A green bird feeder with three tiers, filled with bird seeds

Seeds of an Idea

Fill this übermodern recycled plastic Heirloom Art Co. feeder from the top with sunflower seeds or peanuts, and chickadees and finches will come calling ($84; heirloomartco.com).


A part of a cast-iron pan with a green towel wrapped around the handle

Signature Recipe

Cast-iron anything has long been a go-to gift for Southerners, and now Smithey Ironware, the maker of this dual-handled skillet, will even engrave its underside with the recipient’s monogram ($240; smithey.com).


A mushroom-shaped stool with red, dark brown, and green wood marbled throughout

Night Cap

“Drink me,” beckons any cocktail perched on the jewelry designer Silvia Furmanovich’s mushroom stool; thin layers of salvaged Brazilian wood form the groovy marquetry pattern ($4,600; tinygods.com).


A gold loop chain has a red pendant on it with a carved imprint of a butterfly

Flight of Fancy

A hand-carved moth in flight lifts Elizabeth Locke’s carnelian and yellow gold pendant, one of the latest offerings from the Virginia jewelry designer, shown here with her hammered Volterra link chain ($4,900 for pendant, thedefinitive.com; $21,600 for chain, thedefinitive.com).


A black and silver pizza oven; inside the pizza oven is a pizza cooking

Hot and Now

The smaller footprint of the Karu 12G, Ooni’s most advanced portable pizza oven—stoked by wood, charcoal, or, if you add on a gas burner, propane—means it packs up easy for firing pepperoni pies at campsite or tailgate ($429; ooni.com).


A orange notebook with a teal oval on the front and a deep blue spine. A black and silver pen rests on the notebook

Pen to Paper

For those who love to journal, list, doodle, or sketch, this oak ballpoint from ABASK ($210; abask.com) and an Italian-made Porta notebook ($29; porta-nyc.com) make for inspiring stocking stuffers. 


A rattan tray with pockets for magazines and books

Lap of Luxury

Breakfast in bed may lead to all day in bed when it’s served from this rattan Casa Branca tray, with two side pockets for glossies, paperbacks, tablets, you name it ($750; casabranca.com).


A bright and colorful assortment of bulbous and pointed glass ornaments are arranged in a ring

Stay Glassy

Hang every color of the rainbow on the tree with the help of these handblown glass ornaments in vintage silhouettes by Knoxville’s Pretentious Glass Co., for Blackberry Farm ($48–$98 each; blackberryfarmshop.com).


A cream plant stand or vase speckled with darker brown splattered dots and a green assortment of plants inside

Hot Spots

Santa may get distracted if he sees this handmade spatterware urn from the Ark Elements on your mantel ($398; thearkelements.com).


A cocktail shaker, jigger, and tray wrapped in fitted brown leather

Bar Tack

King Ranch Saddle Shop’s hand-stitched- leather-wrapped jigger, shaker, and tray will bring a ruggedly handsome touch to your next martini ($245–$345; krsaddleshop.com).


A beaded bag with tan and green stripes

Sparkle Bomb

No matter how you plan to shimmy into or out of a room this season, this little glass-beaded number by Lizzie Fortunato should be on your arm ($395; shop .lizziefortunato.com).


A snow globe with a large sculptural snowflake within the glass. The globe is on a red background with a snow-like pattern of white

White Out

It’s rare for most of the South to see the kind of snowfall required for making angels and sledding in late December, but this sleek Weston Table snow globe brings a flurry of magic regardless ($65; westontable.com).


A shiny and ornately-patterned red skirt on a wooden mannequin

To the Maxi

Mark a festive occasion in Cara Cara’s cotton sateen skirt, tumbling with baroque blooms ($298; caracaranyc.com).


A blue and white patterned plate of cheddar wafers

Party Flavor

Whether for a hostess gift or your own fete, these cheddar chive wafers from the Rounds offers a poppable alternative to the cheese straw and arrives in a lovely package ($40 for forty-five; theroundsnyc.com).

Photo: the Rounds

Brown clogs sit on top of each other

Sure Footing

The folks at Garden Heir specialize in curating items that work hard in the yard and look handsome doing it. Case in point: these stylish rubber clogs one could picture on garden maestro Monty Don himself ($78; gardenheir.com).


Daily Grind 

This beautifully lacquered Addison Ross grinder stands a little over a foot tall and can churn up rock salt or peppercorns ($120; addisonrossusa.com).


A stack of white napkins with blue stitching

Stitches in Time

Using an embroidery design passed down through generations, artisans in Northern Portugal stitch these dinner napkins from Porta by hand ($150 for set of six; porta-nyc.com).


A bright orange duffle bag with brown straps and detailing; a hand is poised above it, ready to lift it

One for the Road

The new Tin Cloth collection by Filson, which includes this medium-size duffle, is lighter than most but still tough enough to weather years of adventure thanks to a durable waxed-cotton body, nylon interior, and bridle-leather carry grip ($295; filson.com).


Garden & Gun has affiliate partnerships and may receive a portion of sales when a reader clicks to buy a product. All products are independently selected by the G&G editorial team.


Haskell Harris is the founding style director at Garden & Gun. She joined the title in 2008 and covers all things design-focused for the magazine. The House Romantic: Curating Memorable Interiors for a Meaningful Life is her first book. Follow @haskellharris on Instagram.


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