Long Island shopkeepers know which gifts are trending and special

While shopping for your loved ones this holiday season, consider these local-owned businesses — in some cases run by actual moms and pops. Some have been operated by generations of family members dating to the 19th century while others had their grand openings in more modern times. But all can offer personalized service and knowledgeable salespeople that you might not get from the big conglomerates.

The Wharf Shop

69 Main St., Sag Harbor, 631-725-0420, wharfshop.com

Specialty: Educational toys and gifts

Year founded: 1968

Fifty cents can still buy something at The Wharf Shop in Sag Harbor, owned by Nada Barry and her daughter, Gwen Waddington. The shop’s least expensive items are tiger’s eye, jasper and hematite gemstones dispensed for two quarters dropped into a vending machine, Waddington said. Barry, who emigrated from London with her mother during World War II, and Waddington took the shop’s name from The Long Wharf waterfront area at the foot of the village’s Main Street. Fifty-seven years later, Barry, who is in her 90s, continues to work at the shop, open 361 days a year. The store specializes in educational toys such as wooden train sets, science kits, hand-painted Breyer model horses and the Melissa & Doug line, which includes a Sort, Stock, Select wooden vending machine play set for children ages 2 to 8.

What’s a great gift this year?

Sag Harbor and Hamptons-themed coasters, mugs, trays, kitchen towels or a 500-piece jigsaw puzzle depicting The Long Wharf and its windmill.

What would make a good stocking stuffer?

A travel size set of Magna-tiles magnetic building blocks.

What does the shop offer that chain stores can’t?

“Personalized service,” Waddington said. “We greet every customer who comes into the store, and our staff is always available to help select the perfect gift at the price point they are thinking of.”

What’s your favorite Christmas memory in the store?

“On Christmas Eve we host a luncheon for the staff, and a woman who is one of our longtime customers always comes in to say hello,” Waddington said. “And every year she wears a different hat with a different Christmas decoration.”

 — Jim Merritt

Gennaro Jewelers

410 Bedford Ave., Bellmore, 516-785-0134,
gennarojewelers.com

Specialty: Jewelry sales and custom pieces

Year founded: 1923

Gennaro Jewelers has had three owners in its 102-year history, beginning with founder Erwin Von Der Heydt, a North Bellmore farm owner and clockmaker. Louis Gennaro, a horologist (clock and watch maker), partnered with Von Der Heydt before taking ownership in the late 1960s. In 1979, Gary Hudes was working in jewelry manufacturing in Queens when he answered Gennaro’s want ad for a business manager. Hudes, a fine artist who’d worked in stained glass, ceramics and oils and studied jewelry-making in high school, became a partner in the late ’90s.

At that time, Hudes said he realized he needed “something special and unique” to keep up with the times and grow the business. His solution: corporate gifts and specialty jewelry for police and fire departments.

Nowadays you will still find Hudes, who served as a Hempstead Town councilman from 2000 until 2017, working at his jeweler’s bench, creating designs from his pencil sketches.

What's a great gift this year?

Tennis bracelets, engagement rings and other jewelry made with laboratory-synthesized (lab) diamonds, which Hudes said “test and have color and clarity variations like earth-grown diamonds, but cost from a quarter to a third less.”

What would make a good stocking stuffer?

A pair of earrings to match a diamond pendant.

What does the shop offer that chain stores can’t?

“We do everything on the premises as the customer stands in front of the diamond setter or jeweler, and watches all the work being done,” Hudes says.

What’s your favorite Christmas memory in the store?

During holiday seasons in the 1980s, a big silver-plated punch bowl filled with spiked eggnog was set up for customers to sip from silver cups as they munched bakery cookies set out on plates on the counter. “It was like you were sitting in someone’s living room filled with jewelry,” Hudes recalled.

 — Jim Merritt

Hicks Nurseries

100 Jericho Tpke., Westbury, 516-334-0066,
hicksnurseries.com

Specialty: Garden Center and Plant Nursery

Year founded: 1853

Hicks’ Christmas store is a perennial holiday shopping destination. Founded by Isaac Hicks, who began by selling trees to his neighbors, it is currently owned and operated by the sixth generation of the Hicks family. The store carries on Isaac Hicks’ tree-rooted tradition by selling fresh-cut Fraser and balsam fir evergreens, as well as pre-lit artificial trees, wreaths, ornaments, twinkly lights and whimsical inflatable lawn decorations. Need a gift instead? The options include Christmas cactus, poinsettias, charcuterie boards, gourmet food items, elegant serving pieces and toys, as well as clothing in a Willow & Ivy apparel and home accessories department. 

What’s a great gift this year?
Hicks Signature planter arrangements with fresh foliage and seasonal flowers are “a thoughtful hostess gift,” said merchandise manager Jillian Gallagher.

What would make a good stocking stuffer?

For green-thumbed gardeners, mini succulents in festive pots, seed packets, small indoor plant tools, amaryllis bulb kits and graphic tees. For the kids, pocket-sized toys, plush animals and travel-friendly art kits.

What does the shop offer that chain stores can’t?
“We offer a shopping experience that’s personal and rooted in family and community,” Gallagher said. The sales team is knowledgeable and willing to share tips on plant care or styling your space, she added.

What’s your favorite Christmas memory in the store?

“The most magical moment in the store is when Santa makes his grand entrance,” Gallagher said. She added that watching children’s “faces light up as Santa takes his seat on the cozy couch is truly heartwarming.”

 — Jim Merritt

Blum’s Swimwear and Intimate Apparel

27 E. Main St., Patchogue, 631-475-0136, shopblums.com

Specialty: Swimwear and lingerie sales

Year founded: 1927

Blum’s Swimwear and Intimate Apparel in downtown Patchogue was founded almost 100 years ago by Arthur and Molly Blum as Blum’s Corset Shop. Their daughter, Bernice Blum, and her husband, Abie Siegel, started working in the business in 1950 and took over the store’s operations in the early 1960s. For 45 years, Abie Siegel was in charge of the store’s operations while Bernice oversaw the lingerie and swimwear department. In 2000 at age 68, Abie Siegel handed the business to his son, Marc Siegel. He works alongside co-owner Cherie Alleyne, who joined Blum’s in 1999 and expanded the store’s year-round swimwear selection in response to the rise of winter travel to destinations like the Caribbean and Florida.

What’s a great gift this year? Festive sleepwear, plush robes and sweaters. A Blum’s gift card is a good fit too, Alleyne said: “They can choose what they want. It’s always the right size.” Free gift wrapping is offered year-round.

What would make a good stocking stuffer? Cozy winter scarves, fuzzy slipper socks, shawl wraps, festive candles and a variety of scented hand creams.

What does the shop offer that chain stores can’t? Blum’s is renowned for providing a level of personalized customer service — featuring trained fitters — that department stores and big-box retailers can’t match, Siegel said. 

What’s your favorite Christmas memory in the store? Siegel said he fondly remembers watching his late father, Abie Siegel, wrap gifts while chatting with customers.

 —Donna Kutt Nahas

MRO Palace

422 Sunrise Hwy., Lynbrook, 516-519-883, mropalace.com

Specialty: Afrocentric clothing store

Year founded: 2018

Celebrating its first Christmas season in downtown Lynbrook, MRO Palace is dressing up its storefront window with gifts wrapped in ankara, a colorful fabric indigenous to West Africa.

“It’s basically a cotton, made with a special technique involving wax,” said Don Armstead, who owns the business with his wife, Modupe Ruth Ogunlaja Armstead.

Modupe, who studied fashion and illustration in Lagos, Nigeria, immigrated to the United States in 2001, and founded MRO Palace in Elmont.

The new, larger space is filled with garments Modupe sews by hand with fabrics — including some hand-woven and -dyed — purchased in Africa. In her travels, Modupe also picks the threads for authentic Nigerian gele headpieces, which she said “is like a crown for a woman.” They run from $80 to $120.

What’s a great gift this year?
A hoodie or T-shirt with ankara accents.

What would make a good stocking stuffer?

Nigerian beaded bracelets.

What does the shop offer that chain stores can’t?

“We offer original Afrocentric designs and authentic African products sourced from the actual craftsmen and women in Africa,” Armstead said.

What’s your favorite Christmas memory in the store?
“Being new to Lynbrook, this will be our first Christmas holiday in this location,” Armstead said. “But over the years, we have enjoyed getting our clients ready for their holiday festivities.”

 —Jim Merritt  

Jay’s Hidden Treasures

466 Hawkins Ave., Lake Ronkonkoma, 631-384-0301

Specialty: Vintage and gift shop

Year founded: 2018

Jeremy “Jay” Chiaramonte has always been “old,” according to his mother, Patti. The Lake Ronkonkoma native, 36, grew up a lover and avid collector of all things vintage — and he’s never aged out of that. Step inside his shop on Hawkins Avenue to be transported to a museum of decades past for hobbyists and families alike: from classic toys and knickknacks to records to antique home items.

They also have a large variety of Christmas village sets and blow molds — plus friendly service from Jay, Patti and his wheaten terrier, named Retro

What’s a great gift this year?

“I think a lot of the snow globes ... everybody seems to love them,” Jay Chiaramonte said. “And the villages. A customer came in recently and bought a village for herself the other day; now she’s buying for somebody else to start them off.”

What would make a good stocking stuffer?

The store offers inexpensive jewelry like stainless steel bracelets, rings and watches, Chiaramonte said. Most pieces are $5 to $15.

What does the shop offer that chain stores can’t?

Chiaramonte said they will mail items out of state.

“If customers are here on vacation, and they can’t fit something in their suitcase, I’ll mail it to them and the package will beat them home,” he said.

What’s your favorite Christmas/holiday memory in the store?

“I sell a lot of vintage pocket watches,” Chiaramonte said. “And I sold one to a lady who came in with her son, who bought it as a gift for a family member. Two days later, the same kid comes back with his dad to buy a gift for somebody and he picks out the same pocket watch. It turns out they [the kids] were twins. One was with the mom, one with the dad, and they both bought each other the same thing. I couldn’t believe it!” 

—Kevin J. Redding

Patchogue Jewelers

655 Montauk Hwy., Suite 14, East Patchogue, 631-475-1441,
patchoguejewelers.com.

Specialty: Jewelry sales and repairs

Year founded: 2015

Jeweler Richard Martinez said he worked for Rose Jewelers’ former Patchogue locations for decades before it closed and he opened his own shop in East Patchogue. (Rose Jewelers still operates in Southampton but closed the Patchogue storefront several years after founder Robert Rosenblatt died in 2009.) Martinez owns the store with his wife, Liliana, a gemologist, who appraises stones. The Martinez family, originally from Colombia, continues the store’s spirit, even keeping the old business’ telephone number.

What’s a great gift this year? A beautiful bracelet never goes out of style. Liliana Martinez said it’s best to let her know what your budget is. Quality pieces range from $700 to more than $10,000.

What would make a good stocking stuffer? Charm bracelets are coming back, she said, and charms can range from as little as $25 to several hundred dollars.

What does the shop offer that chain stores can’t? Richard Martinez will be the one to work on your piece, in some cases finishing the job within 24 hours. “They [customers] can get a jeweler on the premises every single day,” Liliana Martinez said.

What’s your favorite holiday memory in the store? Liliana Martinez recalled that one year she used FaceTime to help a sick customer — who knew it was likely her last Christmas — shop for the holidays. “I delivered the pieces to the hospital and when all was said and done, after Christmas, she told me how important it was for her,” Martinez said.

 —Vera Chinese