Small Town Christmas Shopping

I absolutely love doing a little shopping at Christmastime in the small New England towns!  It truly is a Norman Rockwell experience!  Some of my favorite town centers to explore are: Portsmouth, Peterborough, or Hanover in New Hampshire, and Concord and Newburyport in Massachusetts.  With most of our Christmas preparations complete, we have a little time for fun and frolicking!  So, today, Colette and I headed off to Newburyport, while the guys went off on their own to complete their Christmas shopping.

The town center of Newburyport is graced by several old, steepled churches, this being the largest of the three.

The surrounding shops are in old brick buildings, with all the storefronts decorated for Christmas.  The brick sidewalks were heaped with snow, which was rapidly melting in the balmy (40-50 degree) weather.

Naturally, we explored every bakery!  This one smelled soooo good inside!

I thought this table setting, displayed in the Stonewall Kitchen store, was so beautiful…in a unconventional Christmas way.  I love the mix of taupes, browns, and steely blues to create a tranquil lodge-like table setting.

My favorite shop that we visited was this one!

It was stocked with: Hunter boots, teas, umbrellas, Aero bars (yum!), wool blankets of amazing quality, and Emma Bridgewater pottery.  One of our favorites of the Emma Bridgewater pieces was this fox mug in the front window display.

Mostly, we did window shopping.  But I did come home with an assortment of three chocolate sauces from Stonewall Kitchen, and plans for them on New Year’s Day.  Yum!