Great Gifting: Gifts That Give Back

This year's series of holiday gift-giving posts kicks off with a win-win-win suggestion: it'll make your recipient extremely happy, it'll do good for someone in your community and it'll make you look like an awesome person for giving something that is self-liquidating (i.e. doesn't have to be dusted or stored) and also helps those less fortunate. You can add in another win if you count the fact that all this happens with money you'd be spending anyway, maybe on a gift that doesn't do any of the above.

What is this magical prezzie that satisfies on so many levels?

Well, New Deal Distillery is holding its 4th Annual Season's Eatings event on December 14, a holiday bazaar that brings together local food and drink artisans to showcase the area’s finest chocolates, cheeses, spirits and foodstuffs. And we're not talking just any old artisans, but folks like Pok Pok Som drinking vinegars, cured meats from Tails and Trotters, heavenly handmade chocolates from Alma Chocolates (top photo), locally roasted coffee from Water Avenue, addictive chocolate truffles and cheeses from Briar Rose Creamery, pickles from Unbound Pickling, jellies from Kelly's Jelly and so many more. (List on the website.)

New Deal, of course, will be featuring its roster of distilled goodness for tasting and purchase as well, and I can guarantee from past experience that your giftees will be thrilled to find a bottle of spirits under the tree instead of some gewgaw from the Dollar Store or Tuesday Morning. Proceeds from your purchases will benefit the Oregon Food Bank, and admission is just one non-perishable food item or a donation in the amount of your choosing.

So start making your list now, and don't forget the holiday parties and gatherings that might require a host or hostess gift. You can't help but come out a winner.

Details: 4th Annual Season's Eatings.Sat., Dec. 14, noon-6 pm; admission is one non-perishable food item (or cash donation). Event at New Deal Distillery, 900 SE Salmon St. 503-234-2513.

Read the other posts in this year's Great Gifting series: Mad Skills, Kids' Stuff, Bookin' It and Good Eatin'.