E-Mail This Article to a Friend Quit wine-ing This year, why not bring a unique gift to the hosts of your holiday parties? BY LARYN IVY
	Who’s hosting the goods? • Bath & Body Works, various locations. • Bel Tempo, 28 Tremont Street, Boston, (617) 523-5355. • Blackstone’s of Beacon Hill, 46 Charles Street, Boston, (617) 227-4646. • Bradley Liquors, 1383 Boylston Street, Boston, (617) 536-3407. • Container Store, The Mall at Chestnut Hill, 27 Boylston Street, Chestnut Hill, (617) 566-7400. • Crate & Barrel, various locations. • Flat of the Hill, 60 Charles Street, Boston, (617) 619-9977. • Godiva, CambridgeSide Galleria, 100 CambridgeSide Place, Cambridge, (617) 494-9821. • MFA Store, 3 South Market Building, Faneuil Hall, Boston, (617) 720-1266. • Oliviers & Co., 161 Newbury Street, Boston, (617) 859-8841. • Pottery Barn, various locations. • Restoration Hardware, various locations. • Urban Outfitters, 361 Newbury Street, Boston, (617) 236-0088; 11 JFK Street, Cambridge, (617) 864-0070. • Williams-Sonoma, various locations. — LI

The holiday cocktail-party circuit has begun, so here’s a scenario you probably know all too well. Running late after spending too much time digging through your closet trying to find something to wear, you make a mad dash to the liquor store and grab a bottle of wine to bring for the party’s host. If you’re lucky, the clerk will scrape off the price tag, and if you’re really lucky, maybe he’ll put the bottle in a foil bag. Then you’ll arrive at the party, greet the host, hand over the bag (for which you’ll be graciously thanked), and it’ll be placed on a table along with 30 other bottles.

Surely there’s something better out there. A way to stand out from the crowd. A gift that will elevate you above the mass of wine-bearing guests.

For full think-ahead credit, order flowers for delivery the morning of the party. The host will likely be running around tending to party details, and receiving a floral arrangement will be appreciated for both its thoughtfulness and its usefulness. Or, if you insist on giving wine, arrange for delivery of a bottle the day of the party. Then the host will remember your gift apart from the sea of bottles received that night, and she’ll be grateful to increase her bar stash before the party begins. You can order wine for delivery from stores such as Bradley Liquors.

If that’s just too much thinking ahead for you, fear not. In as much time as it takes to get to the liquor store and buy a bottle of merlot, you can swing by any number of stores in the area for a fun and unique gift.

Some traditional host/hostess gifts are picture frames (Restoration Hardware, Urban Outfitters, and Crate & Barrel all have frames with prices starting around $10); luxuriously scented sachets (Bel Tempo carries a set of two drawer sachets for $16.50); and note cards (Blackstone’s of Beacon Hill and Bel Tempo are good sources; prices start around $10.95).

If you want to stay with a wine theme, you’re in luck: there are plenty of options. A wine opener is always useful to a host, and Williams-Sonoma sells a table " Screwpull " ($22) that promises to make bottle-opening easy. Or, considering all those wines the host will be receiving, give him a decorative bottle stopper he can use to preserve the wine after it’s been opened. Bel Tempo sells Mariposa pewter wine stoppers ($20) in a variety of designs. Coasters are one of those things you can never have enough of, but generally never buy for yourself — and thus are the perfect hostess gift. Choose from a variety of holiday coasters, or go with a more year-round set, like the Art Deco coasters ($14.95/set) available at the MFA Store. Wine charms are a great way for guests to keep track of their glasses throughout the night; choose from a set of margarita or leaf wine charms ($12 and $14), sold at Williams-Sonoma.

If you’re more interested in the hard stuff, try a cocktail shaker. Urban Outfitters sells them in silver, blue, and mint green ($14.95), and Crate & Barrel has a red insulated shaker and strainer ($14.95). Bel Tempo sells Christmas-tree swizzle sticks ($6/four), while Restoration Hardware carries penguin and polar-bear olive picks ($12/six). Crate & Barrel also stocks a variety of brightly colored gem martini glasses ($6.95); Urban Outfitters sells martini glasses ($22/four) too. Or pick up some books on cocktails — a welcome addition to any library. Restoration Hardware’s Drinkology: The Art and Science of the Cocktail, by James Waller (Stewart, Tabori and Chang, 2003; $22.50), has more than 450 recipes, or grab Crate & Barrel’s The Ultimate Cocktail Book (Hamlyn, 2001; $24.95).

Or maybe food is more appetizing. If you’re culinarily inclined, you could bake your own cookies and present them in a cookie tin or decorative wrapping from the Container Store; what better way for your host to deal with the day-after-party blues than by diving into a box of homemade cookies? Or, if you’d rather not do the baking, Williams-Sonoma has packaged bread and cake mixes (starting at $9) in flavors such as pumpkin spice, eggnog, and chocolate cherry. A mix makes a good gift on its own, or put it in a loaf pan ($12) from Williams-Sonoma and tie it with a ribbon.

Along the " you buy it, they make it " line, there’s popcorn. Stop by any gourmet-food store and buy a bag of kernels; wrap it on its own, or buy a large popcorn bowl ($12.95) from Crate & Barrel and put them together for a retro treat.

For ready-to-eat — or at least ready-to-use — food-type gifts, Oliviers & Co. is like a wine shop, but for olive oil. Choose an imported oil ($8.50 and up) and give it as a gift on its own, or with a box of the gourmet crackers the shop also carries. Godiva, the well-known chocolatier, has a variety of great hostess gifts, including an eight-piece box of its famous truffles ($15), a half-pound box of 18 assorted chocolates ($23.50), or a box of three bars of candy-cane bark ($25). Hot chocolate makes another great seasonal gift. Crate & Barrel carries snowman hot chocolate ($9.95), or pick up a mug with two packages of hot-chocolate mix ($18) from Godiva.

On the food-accessory front, chopsticks are a creative gift for the sushi or Chinese-food lover. The MFA Store carries chopsticks ($14.95), and Crate & Barrel sells a flower chopstick rest (95 cents). Or head over to Urban Outfitters and pick up a noodle set ($34), including bowls, chopsticks, rests, and mats for four. Cheese knives and spreaders, meanwhile, are perfect for the cheese connoisseur. Williams-Sonoma carries an assortment of cheese spreaders ($12–$14/four); Bel Tempo stocks Mariposa pewter sea-design spreaders ($20); and Crate & Barrel sells cheese knives ($17.95/three). Cocktail napkins are also always useful, and they’re currently available in a festive assortment of designs and colors. Choose from Pottery Barn’s reindeer cocktail napkins ($34/10); Caspari paper cocktail napkins ($4.95 and up/set) from Blackstone’s; or Bel Tempo’s Harvey and Straight luxurious cocktail napkins ($18.75/eight).

Finally, you can opt for a holiday-themed gift for your host or hostess. Everywhere you look, you’re sure to find an item festooned with a snowman, a Christmas tree, or a candy cane. Most are packaged so that you don’t even need to be creative — just pick it up and go. Still, we do have a few suggestions. One of the cutest gifts is the snowman kit ($14) from Restoration Hardware. You get everything you need except the snow: a " coal " nose, three buttons, a corncob pipe, and a red knit hat with tassels.

Ornaments are also a great way to help your host turn her Charlie Brown tree into something a little more decorative. Some favorites include the hand-painted Boston-scene ornaments ($26) at the MFA Store or Blackstone’s of Beacon Hill; an assortment of ornaments ($2.50 and up) from Crate & Barrel; and the hand-blown glass balls ($37.50) at Bel Tempo.

Walk into any store these days and you’re likely to smell the scents of the season wafting from candles, potpourri, or air fresheners. Any of these scented items makes a great hostess gift. Choose from Slatkin & Company’s sumptuous line of fragranced candles and potpourri ($31.50/candles; $35/potpourri), available at Bel Tempo and Flat of the Hill, or head to Bath & Body Works for candles ($16) or air fresheners ($9) in Christmas spice, tree, and cookie scents. Finally, for a sweet-looking six-pack, pick up a set of six candy-cane votives ($12.95) from Crate & Barrel.

For about the same price as a nice bottle of wine, you can buy any number of creative and unusual host/hostess gifts to bring to your next holiday party. Your thoughtfulness will be noted, your uniqueness appreciated, and your gift will likely last a lot longer than a bottle of wine.

Laryn Ivy can be reached at larynivy@verizon.net