Selecting gifts for the creatives in our lives – be they young or just young at heart – can be challenging. When you’re already stretched to the limit, finding gifts that will surprise and delight can feel like the most daunting task on our to-do lists. Plus the holidays can seem so commercialized, and even when we want to support small businesses, it can be difficult to know where to shop online safely.
We’ve curated a selective list of gifts from trusted small businesses, artists, and nonprofits that will delight and nurture your young creatives. Here you’ll find lovely, playful, enriching gifts that will inspire their creativity and support them on their creative journey.
Creative people love stories, and especially love rich worlds to explore and escape into. Sylvan Design Co offers stunning travel posters to fictional locations as far-flung as the Shire and Tatooine. Showing your approval for your young person’s fandoms and cherished stories will show them that you see them for who they really are! Sylvan Design posters represent fandoms as varied as Studio Ghibli, Legend of Zelda, Percy Jackson, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, and even classic literature, so there’s almost certainly something your young creative will love. (And if you’re not sure, ask their siblings or friends!) All posters are designed, produced and sold by Danielle Sylvan, so you’re supporting the artist directly.
It’s no surprise that writers are readers. Reading nurtures writers’ craft by modeling great writing and motivating them to keep working on their own creations. Encourage your young creative to celebrate their year in books with a book tracking poster or desktop calendar from B. Sundgren Studio. Readers will feel a growing sense of accomplishment as they log their books and will have a handy (and playful!) visual reminder of the worlds they’ve already explored and the characters they’ve befriended. And check out the adorable stickers – kids of all ages love stickers! Artist Brittany Sundgren is even offering our Inklings a 15% discount, with code “INKLINGS15!”
Sometimes writers need a little inspiration, and what better inspiration than art itself? Francie Towne created the delightful cover of the 2023 Inklings Book. Her postcard book would make a great set of writing prompts for writers. Each image contains rich elements of story for writers to develop. Families can also use the images to jumpstart collective storytelling, or encourage writers to create a storyboard with the postcard as the beginning, middle, or end panel. The possibilities are endless!
All writers need a place to share their thoughts – yes notebooks! Many writers prefer blank pages so they can doodle and write unfettered by the limitations imposed by lines. Megan Marie Myers’ duo of blank notebooks has the added advantage of joyful covers that will lift your artist’s spirits as they open the cover. The “Earth Day” and “Winter Night” images may also inspire story and setting ideas. Our writers may recognize Megan’s style from her whimsical cover for our 2021 Inklings Book.
Stone Soup nonprofit literary magazine has been publishing writing and art by young people for over 50 years, but your young creative may not have heard of it! A subscription to their digital or print magazine will connect your writer to a young community of artists and may inspire them to see publishing their work as an achievable goal. Not to mention, you’ll be bringing great art and writing straight to their homes.
And of course, a Society of Young Inklings T-shirt is the perfect garb for writing, to remind your young writer that their voice matters.
