Renegade Gifts for the Host

It's the season to gather - for dinner parties and holiday-sweater soirees, cookie-baking marathons and weekends with family. And then there's New Year's Eve lurking around the corner. No matter where you go this month, chances are good you'll want to bring a token of appreciation, especially for an overnight or extended stay. But how many bottles of wine can one host drink? Don't answer that question. To get outside of the box (and beyond that bottle), we scoured Renegade's holiday craft show rosters for handmade gift ideas for the host.

Soap. It's a rare holiday season I don't receive a chunk of it. But what if that soap... mattered? Tippy Tippens' Matter L3C is a New Orleans-based industrial design and consulting studio (that L3C part means low profit, limited liability company, a relatively new structure for socially responsible businesses). Along with other goods, Matter produces Tippens' BirdProject soaps - black, bird-shaped soaps that wash away to reveal a white ceramic bird at their core. Tippens makes the clay; Sweet Olive Soap Works makes the soap. And fifty percent of the profits go to Gulf Restoration Network and International Bird Rescue, two organizations working to repair the damage wrought by the BP oil spill. (And - forgive my crude aestheticism - the soaps are super cute, too.)

Want to make a gardener - or a locavore - freak out? Give them one of Krank Press' perpetual gardening calendars. Los Angeles-based Elinor Nissley incorporates drawings and woodcuts into her handprinted goods. Her handsome gardening calendars, available for various regions, feature a lovely linoleum block print on each page, along with lists of what to plant and what ought to be in season. There's space for notes, and - yes, it gets better - because the calendars aren't organized by day of the week, you can use them year after year. I can't think of a better way to stick to that most popular of New Year's resolutions - eat better - than to hang a beautiful reminder of what's in season in your kitchen.

Other suggestions? Check out Bird Mafia's stylish textile goods, from always-useful tea towels to adorable fox, kestrel, and raccoon stuffies. Each of Emily Brown's smart designs starts as a piece of cut paper art - which Brown then transfers to a screen for printing on eco-friendly fabric. Or fork over a half-dozen of This Charming Candy's salted caramel lollipops. No one will ever know you kept the other six small-batch treats, which are available by the dozen (in a variety of flavors).

Upcoming Renegade holiday sales include Los Angeles (Dec. 10-11) and San Francisco (Dec. 17-18). What makes Renegade so special? Check out our interview with Renegade co-founder and director Sue Daly.

This holiday season we're rounding up the perfect handmade crafts for the people in your life - foodies, hosts, entertainers, men, stylish girlfriends, kids, jewelry junkies, and those who love to learn. Check out all of our handmade gift ideas.