Holiday Picks

Burning bright

After running the Caledon East shop Bloom, for several years, Melissa Lester decided to move out and concentrate on the popular jarred candles she’d been making for the store. Her hand-poured, all-Canadian June + Rose Candle Co. candles tick all of today’s eco-friendly boxes. They’re made from pure soy wax with lead-free cotton wicks, and burn for up to 70 hours. The subtle fragrances – our holiday pick is Bayberry Pine – come via high-grade essential oils and without parabens or phthalates. The labels peel off easily, in case you want a cleaner look, and so the jars can be reused or recycled. (Melissa will take them back too.) Find them at various local shops including It’s Roxie’s, in the former Bloom location, and the Inglewood Village Store (formerly It’s Roxie’s, if you’re keeping track). ($30/8 oz., June + Rose Candle Co.)

Cool cranberry

For a festive tipple or host gift this season, Pommies’ cranberry remake of hard cider is a crisp, refreshing winner. To make the red bubbly, the company blends apple and cranberry juices, then ferments it and adds a dash of cinnamon and nutmeg before canning. The Caledon cidery has been slowly widening its range – other sips to try include a pear cider and a sangria spiked with wine and fruit. Pommies is available at the LCBO. Visit pommies.com for locations. ($3.55/473ml, LCBO)

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Pick a card

When you’re choosing holiday cards to send this year, consider a set that both looks sweet and has heart. DAREarts, a charity based in Hockley Valley, offers sets of cards decorated by children – many of them from the Headwaters region – created as part of the DAREarts Card Reconciliation Project run in classrooms across the country, including in Indigenous communities. In turn, money raised helps bring DAREarts programming to communities in need. Each box contains 12 cards in one of two themes – winter or Indigenous art. We’d buy one of each, if you ask us. Go to darearts.com to order by fax or email. ($20/box of 12, DAREarts)

Sources

• DAREarts, Hockley.  darearts.com
• June + Rose Candle Co., Caledon East.  juneandrosecandleco.com (coming soon).  Instagram and Facebook
• Inglewood Village Store, 15596 McLaughlin Rd, Inglewood.  905-998-1386.  Instagram and Facebook
• It’s Roxie’s, 16035 Airport Rd, Caledon East.  905-965-2165.  Facebook
• LCBO.  1-800-668-5226.  lcbo.com
• Pommies Cider Co., Caledon.  905-857-5432.  pommies.com