Portland Spoke – The Official Blog of Travel Portland – Travel Portland's Staff Blog

Cute kid alert: I was digging through my e-mail and came across this photo from my colleague Megan, whose daughters enjoyed a holiday shopping spree in downtown Portland.

Bring on the holidays – the pop-up shops are back! Four destination shopping experiences, available only in November and December, are now open for business throughout downtown.

Boys’ Fort, a fantastical venue created by two theater designers, offers everything from salvaged wood tables and reclaimed lighting to men’s wallets and women’s bangles. The nonprofit Trillium Artisans helps up-and-coming artisans market their wares, which are all crafted from repurposed materials; check out the upcycled jewelry, toys, garden art and the baby booties made from surplus Pendleton wool. Downtown Artistry offers indie crafts and ceramics (and classes for the DIY shopper) and Saturday Market Annex provides an on-site artisan workshop and a daily central-city complement to Portland Saturday Market on the waterfront. Nearby, don’t miss Portland Design Collective and Crafty Wonderland – former pop-up shops that are now permanent storefronts offering fashion, jewelry and crafts year-round.

Looking for a motherlode of unique gifts? Clear your calendar for Dec. 10-11 when two holiday fairs celebrate Portland’s creative community. Crafty Wonderland’s annual Super Colossal Holiday Sale features more than 200 artisans decking the halls of the Oregon Convention Center with handmade jewelry, toys and housewares. Nearby, the Portland Bazaar launches this year at Sandbox Studio with a curated collection of handcrafted goods by more than 100 vendors. Offerings include books, music, art and (this being Portland) a bicycle-building demonstration. A shuttle will ferry shoppers between the fairs, while food carts will keep intrepid gift-givers fueled and toasting tax-free holiday shopping.

Here it is, November already! And that sets me to thinking about holiday gatherings, about homemade cranberry sauce and Hood River’s own Tofurky … and about finding a few special gifts for a few special people.

Thankfully, it’s also time for our pop-up shops to sprout downtown. Alongside Portland Saturday Market, these collectives of local artists, artisans and fashion designers help holiday shoppers find carefully crafted gifts for everyone on our list. Here’s a look at this year’s crop, which opened on Tuesday:

• A favorite indie emporium, Crafty Wonderland, showcases the work of more than 80 local artists in jewelry, clothing, art and housewares. Have some fun with their wacky holiday photo booth! (802 S.W. 10th) (more…)