Holiday gifts of all kinds can be found in village stores

SALISBURY — A spontaneous ramble around town in search of unusual Christmas presents that won’t break the bank yielded this highly arbitrary list of finds.

At Passports, someone who bought a decent bottle of wine across the street at Salisbury Wines could gussie it up with a silk brocade wine bottle cover for an extra $5.

Or you could get some decorative monkey balls at $8 a pop. (That’s what they’re called.)

Or fancy red dinner table candles ($15 for a box of six — a lifetime supply for this reporter).

Men’s and women’s leather gloves — the kind you put on with your Chesterfield coat — are between $35 and $45;  real freshwater pearls start at $20 per strand.

And an incongruous but welcome find: handcrafted fishing lures lurking in the men’s accessories department, a very cool stocking stuffer for the spin-caster in the family ($10).

Over at Peter Becks Village Store, the eye is immediately drawn to what amounts to a shrine to prepdom, with Collared Greens ties, Bill’s Khakis and many accoutrements.

Digging deeper, there are men’s and women’s wool scarves starting at $20 and going up to $65; wool baseball caps, with and without earflaps, starting at $45; flannel-lined chinos at $90 (if you are any kind of outdoors person you will want a pair of these); and some nice Woolrich half-zip wool sweaters for women at $44.

Shoppers can also load up on Salisbury Winter Sports Association gear — shirts and caps — and help that organization’s ongoing efforts.

And don’t forget technical socks, underwear and the like. It gets cold standing around waiting for the next ski jumper.

Peter Becks also has a good selection of hiking guides and backcountry survival manuals.

And in the really inexpensive department, there is an emergency whistle ($4.50) and heavy-duty replacement boot laces that can be adapted for almost any size and shape of boot.

Don’t forget Johnnycake II, in the Marketplace building (behind LaBonne’s). The spinoff store has plenty of good used and unusual books at reasonable prices — more aimed at the reader than the bibliophile (assuming one can tell the difference).

A little off the beaten retail track is Joanne Robinson and  her specialty double-layered tea towels. This Lakeville Journal reporter spotted her at the United Methodist Church in Lakeville Saturday, Dec. 5. The tea towels come in holiday and religious themes. Robinson said she only sells at churches, and donates half the proceeds to the host church. She can be reached at 860-435-1453 for more information.