Whether it’s Christmas, someone’s birthday, a new baby or an engagement gift, there’s always something you can find at a local market that makes a great gift.

Here’s 7 reasons I think shopping at a local market (complete with the cute awning) is great:

1. Support your local community – you’re helping someone in your neighbourhood make a living – and they’ll spend most of that money in your area, too, benefitting everyone.

2. Good for your environment - if they’re locally made artisan goods, there’s less carbon nonsense being accumulated via petrol and packaging for shipping. If it’s close enough that you can walk there and leave the car behind, bonus points.

3. Unique – you’re likely to find products that you won’t see anywhere else – certainly not stacked to the ceiling in Toys ‘R’ Us or Target.

4. Discovery/being in the know - ever heard about those hot clothing designers who started off selling their wares at local markets? How cool would you feel knowing you were there, helping support them from the start of their stellar career?

5. Lower costs means lower prices – market stalls cost from $40 and the money they save on renting a shop means they can keep prices lower which makes it affordable for you.

6. Personal contact – in today’s pre-packaged world, it is charming and delightful to direct meet the people who (hand)make the items you’re handing cash over for.

7. Fun – the markets are a day out in themselves. There’s always something new every week and the chance to pick up something amazing that you’ll know they just love.

Why do you like shopping at local markets for gifts?

Okay, hands up everyone out there who tends to leave their gift shopping till the last minute.

Chances are, you’re part of the almost 50% of all e-gift card shoppers who are in the same boat, so you’re certainly not alone.

The connection between e-gift cards and last-minute shopping isn’t exactly a mysterious one. A recent study by US payment provider Blackhawk Network revealed that almost half of all gift card users over the previous 12 months appear to have time management issues and leave their shopping to the last minute. The advantages of e-gift cards for these hapless souls can’t be underestimated.

Half an hour online, a few clicks of the mouse and the gift card has landed in the recipient’s inbox, with no postage costs to worry about or, more importantly, no precious time lost to allow for delivery. The sender can rest assured that the recipient knows they’re thinking of them and has remembered the occasion in a timely manner. In short, everyone’s happy.

Recognising this burgeoning trend, Blackhawk Network has recently expanded its eGift Card program to include even more retailing options than ever before.

I bet you can already think of a few people you know who’ll be using e-gift cards on Christmas Day!

Last year I wrote a post about the 2009 Christmas sea mail deadlines, directing readers to a PDF on the Australia Post website so they’d have plenty of time to send their gift packages for friends and family living overseas at the much cheaper sea mail delivery rates (another reason to do your Christmas shopping well ahead of time).

This year, on 3 August I visited the Australia Post website and entered “Christmas sea mail deadline”. Nothing came up. So I emailed them asking for the 2010 deadlines.

I was surprised when they said “Despatch dates are not published on our website but are available upon request” and replied that they managed to include it last year.

Anyway, they must have had a change of heart as I discovered a press release dated 12 August that announced the Australia Post Christmas sea mail closing dates for 2010.

The Christmas sea mail deadlines for Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Guyana, French Guiana, Malawi, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Trinidad and Tobago, and Uruguay passed as of 17 August. Chile closes tomorrow (19 August).

The United Kingdom sea mail deadline is 21 September and USA is 28 September as they were last year.

While 28 September is the latest for the vast majority of countries (from Albania to Zimbabwe), if you do happen to know anyone at all on Norfolk Island, you’ve got until 26 November to send your Christmas prezzies by ship.

Have you begun buying any Christmas presents yet? If you – like many people – are paid mid-month, you might have overlooked that fact that after 15 August, you now have only four more salary payments – September, October, November and December to pay for your Christmas gift-giving.

If you haven’t already done so, write a list of who you intend to give a gift to and how much you’ll spend. If you have say 16 people on your list, and you intend spending an average of $100 per person, that’s $400 you have to take out of your pay every month until Christmas to afford these gifts. 20 people @ $50 each? That’s $250 every month for four months. Or perhaps only your nearest and dearest get indulged?

How many people do you buy gifts for at Christmas?

Not all that long ago, people who were organized enough to do their Christmas shopping throughout the year were derided as being “Nannas” and told that they “should get out more” (presumably to do things other than Christmas shopping).

Well it seems that maybe the worm is slowly turning, and it’s those random sales that occur throughout the year that it has in its sights.

According to the results of a recent survey in the UK, almost 60% of respondents admitted to having already started their Christmas shopping, with a further 2% stating that the job was actually completed (bloody hell – and I thought I was organised)!

Eleven percent of these Bree Vanderkamps said they’d bought some of this year’s Christmas gifts in the January sales, which is probably not all that unusual, but 18% also bought discounted Christmas decorations – an unmistakable sign of serious fore-planning.

Not surprisingly, it’s overwhelmingly women who represent these organised shoppers – 81% of them, although 11% of the sisterhood still admitted they’d be leaving their Christmas shopping till… er, Christmas Eve. There’s also the question of festooning the home with Chrissy decorations.

While two-thirds of respondents cited 1 December as the date they start dragging out the tinsel and baubles and looking for last year’s thumbtack holes in the walls and ceilings, 16% admitted they like to start these bonding activities in November!

All of this is probably why the big department stores have been putting up their own Christmas decorations earlier and earlier each year, sometimes while it’s still only October.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m of to catch some bargains in the August sales – after all, Christmas is only four months away.

Dog owners, here’s a treat… and if you’re friends or family with someone who’s mad about their mutt, never again will you be short of gift ideas on birthdays, anniversaries and other special events that require gifts. Here’s a whole doggie-bag full of ideas.

 The Fido Factor is a free service for dog owners who want to know the best dog-friendly establishments around town. It also supports homeless animals and provides information on pet services.

Based in San Francisco, most of the dog-friendly services listed are located there (currently almost 1,000) but Fido Factor has recently expanded into some other US cities, too. Nonetheless, no matter where you live, if you love dogs, there’s still loads of useful information on the site.

Fido Factor is involved in a lot of dog-oriented community activities and events, some of them with names like Hollywoof Movie Night, Bay Woof Party at the Stray Bar and (my personal fave) Halloween Yappy Hour at Bloomingdale’s. Who’d have thunk there was so much going on for dogs?

And on the ‘Bark Blog’ (no, I promise I’m not making it up) you can find out the most dog-friendly airline in the US.

You could splurge on a professional pet photography package as a treat for your favourite furry friend or give a human friend a fun birthday, Christmas or even Valentine’s Day gift of a dog-friendly weekend at a hotel/resort/spa that allows dogs.

People without pets tend to overlook other people’s furry companions when they’re trying to come up with gift ideas, but the Fido Factor certainly helps you to think outside of the box. Or should that be doghouse? With currently about 100 million dog owners in the world, there’s plenty of scope and a sure-fire market for some serious dog-oriented gift-giving.

I can really see this appealing to Sagittarians!

Swapping, selling and buying plastic gift cards is nothing new but here’s something I haven’t seen before…

Not only is CardsUWant.com is a fabulous online marketplace for buying gift cards at up to 40% off and for converting your unwanted cards into instant cash, but they’ve also got a great range of merchants who sell e-gift cards.

Instead of handing someone a plastic gift card for their birthday, Christmas or baby shower in person, e-gift cards are terrific for those who live on the other side of the world – and especially great for those who remember all-too-late on the day when it’s someone’s birthday.

The 16 merchants on there to date range from Bedandbreakfast.com to Zappos. The balances on the e-gift cards are low – $US25 and $US50 – but they should get you out of hot water celebration-wise when it absolutely, positively has to be there before you get an abusive phone call, text or email.

Two’s company, three’s a crowd and 20 or more can get you a great bargain!

In the case of shopping, that doesn’t mean pounding the malls in the company of like-minded shopaholics and bargain-hunters. All of that is soooo 5 minutes ago.

This group activity is much more fun in a pressure-slowly-building, clock’s-ticking, edge-of-your-seat kind of way. Oh, and did we mention that you can pick up some amazing bargains and discounts in the process?

The rub is that to get the deal, a certain number of people have to put their cyber hands up for it. Therefore, by roping in your friends, family, even colleagues, you’ll have the numbers and the deal will be yours. Simple. The power of the group never sounded so good.

Woot pioneered the one-deal-a-day model (although unlike the others, it didn’t depend on a set number of customers purchasing it to receive the deal) when it launched in Dallas in July 2004. Seeing it was a goldmine, Woot was bought by Amazon on 30 June 2010.

But probably the best-known group-buying website is the 400-pound gorilla of online deals, US Groupon which launched in Chicago as recently as November 2008 in time for the Christmas holiday season. The European deal-of-the-day website CityDeal was launched only a year later in December 2009 and by May 2010 was acquired by Groupon, which now has daily online offers operating in more than 140 cities in 18 countries.

The UK equivalent is Groupola, which offers some of the most fabulous bargains from theatre tickets, to glamour photography sessions, to personal training services to fashion, food and accessories at up to 90% off the regular prices.

And there are a few in Australia, such as Spreets, Ouffer and Zoupon, too. However, I’m not aware of any in New Zealand – anyone?

Anyway, you simply register to receive amazing deals in your city – and facebook and Twitter your friends like hell to make sure they pass it on. If enough people buy, you’re in.

Perhaps the US merchants have been lobbying hard, but the original deadline of 22 August 2010 for them to ensure all gift cards have five years expiry has been extended to 31 January 20111.

This new deadline takes it safely past a four-month holiday period when 90% of all gift card sales are made. 

Gift occasions on which gift cards are purchased include baby season (September/October), Halloween (31 October), engagement season (September-November), Thanksgiving (late November), wedding season (in Australia from November-December), and Christmas and New Year’s Eve (December) so merchants don’t have to destroy and replace an estimated 100 million cards which are already on the retail shelves.

Customers who buy gift cards during the six-month transition period between now and January 2011 will receive the full benefits of the new gift card rules.

This means no service fees or ATM fees can be charged until one year of inactivity (and then only one fee per month), gift cards have expiry dates of five years from the last load (aka deposit of extra funds), free replacement cards must be issued or the issuers can reimburse the cardholder, full T&Cs must be displayed and conspicuous disclosures regarding gift card use must be made prior to purchase.

Still, why would anyone wait five years? There’s inflation which will go up – but the value on your gift won’t – and the risk of the store closing, which happens.

I am quite sure the gift cards will outlast some relationships.

Not that I’m a travel agent, but if I was, there are some holidays I know certain Sun signs would love to take – or better yet, receive as an anniversary, birthday, Christmas or wedding gift!

So when I saw that Fairmont Hotels and Resorts had recently launched their Apprentice Trips program, which combines their globally famous luxury brand with a range of accommodation-based activities that relate directly to the culture or landscape of the locale, and, with hotels in 16 different countries, well, that’s a lot of “experiential” packages to choose from.

Talkative Geminis keen to parlez avec vous might enjoy booking the seven-night French Immersion Package at the historic Chateau in Quebec City while environmentally-aware Aquarians could rush for the Eco-Learning Package at the Faimont Kea Lani in Maui. They can choose from one of five eco-learning activities at the resort, which include organic farming in a rainforest, and helping to preserve Hawaii’s archaeological sites by planting native species, among others.

Cancerians may either thrill to Shop With Chef at local markets in Toronto while enjoying a two-night stay at the Fairmont Royal York, or harvesting and hands-on cooking of ingredients from the Secret Garden package in the Fairmont Singapore.

No need for Taureans to book in overnight for the four-hour-plus Sweet Designs package at the Fairmont Pacific Rim in Vancouver – they can have their chocolate (or cake) – and eat it too.

Virgo golfing nuts might enjoy a Tees to Greens stay at the Fairmont Scottsdale where they receive helpful golfing techniques and a behind-the-scenes look at how golf courses are kept so pristine!

In the United Arab Emirates, the Fairmont Bab Al Bahr offers a four-night package for guests to master the regal skill of falconry (the falcon is the UAE’s national bird). I can see this appealing to Leos who think they’re a bit sheik.

In Monte Carlo, guests interested in perfume and exotic oils can broaden their knowledge with the Magic of Aromachology Package, which also includes a 60-minute aromachology massage for two. Wonderful for Pisces.

Librans can choose from taking their favourite best friend with them to Fairmont Turnberry Isle in Miami for the Gal Pal Experience, learning how to do proper back rubs, facials and foot massages, or to learn The Art of Buying Art at the Fairmont Dallas. Since they have a keen eye for art, this one might appeal.

Novice hikers and mountaineers can head to the Fairmont Yangcheng Lake resort in Kunshan, China for the Adventure Awaits package. Gotta-be-first Aries and explorer-mad Sagittarians would love to try this out!

Even politics gets a look-in, with the How to Pass a Bill in Washington Package at the Fairmont, Washington D.C., where a Federally registered lobbyist will advise participants on the crafting and promoting of an agenda. Constitutionally, a bill only requires three steps to become law in the US. Who would have thought that first step could take place while you were on holidays? This is just perfect for power-broking Scorpios and Capricorns.