Instead of shopping gift registries, try browsing the craft tables in the north end of Pike Place Market for unique handcrafted gifts that are decorative, functional or both. If you’re shopping for those who love to cook, wine and dine, you can’t go wrong with these: 

Raven Mountain Woodworks

Terry Graves produces cutting boards of durable woods. Choose a pig, a fish, or a pear—each has a food-safe finish. Check out their website here.

Fine Grind

Brett Knutson creates pepper and salt mills made from exotic and domestic woods. Each features gourmet components and a lifetime warranty. They come in a variety of sizes, 6 to 24 inches. Brett also sells bottle stoppers.

Ballard Vine Works

Ballard Vine Works takes wine barrels and repurposes them into bottle racks, wine butlers, flight glass holders, cheese boards and more, even small tables! Find them online here.

Kitchen Basics

For the cook who has everything, try building your own “gizmo and gadgets” basket chock-full of unusual kitchen items. Kitchen Basics, located in the Sanitary Market, carries unusual items like a coconut tool, a lemon press, a banana slicer, a pineapple slicer and even a watermelon slicer! Arguably the most popular tool is the 3-in-1 avocado slicer, it slices, removes the pit, AND neatly cuts the silky green flesh into slices. Find them online here.

If you’re looking for the perfect Easter ham or leg of lamb, biscuits and breads for brunch, candy or toys to fill the Easter basket, or eggs to dye and hide, stop by Pike Place Market and explore all of the plentiful options!

Order your Easter ham or leg of lamb from Don & Joe’s Meats, Bavarian Meats or Pike’s Pit BBQ.

Grab warm biscuits from Honest Biscuits, delicious breads from Le Panier, or traditional Easter Russian Apple Kulich from Piroshky Piroshky.

Serving wine or mimosas? Check out Wilridge Winery, Northwest Tastings or the cellar in the upstairs of DeLaurenti Specialty Food & Wine.

Fill up those Easter baskets with chocolates from indi chocolate, candies from Sweetie’s, and little toys and trinkets from shops like Ugly Baby, Pike Place Gifts, Robot vs Sloth or Market Magic and Novelty Shop.

And of course, you have to dye some eggs! Hop by the Market Creamery for your choice of eggs, available in a large assortment of sizes and varieties.

Warm light pours out of big windows, gleaming off worldly wonders, inviting you to travel the world in the space of one store. Hands of the World has an impressive 35-year history in Pike Place Market, matched only by the countries represented in the store—Nepal, Pakistan, Indonesia, Mali, Kenya, Thailand, India—just to name a few.

As a young woman, Cynthia Hope took off to see the world. Her travels led her through Southeast Asia, including Thailand, where she met a missionary working with local tribal people. Inspired, Cynthia settled in Northern Thailand to work at a refugee camp on the border of Laos. The next two years would be an experience “like living in a National Geographic magazine,” and ultimately one that would change the trajectory of her life forever.

Cynthia returned to the states with a huge collection of handmade folk art from her time abroad. After selling pieces at street fairs for several months, she eventually made her way to Pike Place Market to open Hands of the World, which over the years would become one of Seattle’s most beloved independent shops.

Keeping the shelves full of beautiful jewelry, art, toys and accessories is no easy feat. Without revealing all her secrets, Cynthia notes that while it has become harder to source items for the store, she is able to source directly from people with whom she has built decades-long relationships, thanks to the longevity of her business.

By sourcing from various communities, Hands of the World helps to provide a fair wage and educational resources through a system that is now known as Fair Trade, putting the needs of the producer first. Since 1982, Cynthia has enabled the Market and the Seattle community as a whole to support craftspeople all around the world.

Visit Hands of the World on Market Level 4, open seven days a week from 10 am to 5 pm.

Located on the corner of First and Pine, Robot vs Sloth is the new shop of owner/artist Lauren Rudeck. Though the shop is a Market newcomer, Lauren is no stranger to Pike Place. For the past five years, she was half of the duo behind Ugly Baby and La Ru on Western Avenue.

Now with more space to showcase her handmade art of "cute animals fighting each other," Lauren's original designs be found throughout the shop on t-shirts, buttons, pins, magnets and totes. Robot vs Sloth also features an expanded selection of paintings, jewelry, plush creatures and DIY craft kits from other local artists such as Starheadboy, Care It Bites, Narboo and more. For those who are artistically inclined, a variety of workshops will also soon be offered in a new classroom space in the back of the store.

With the busyness of the holiday season coming to an end, New Year’s resolutions are all the talk! Whether you’re committed to getting in better shape, using your vacation time, practicing self-care and meditation, learning to cook, or reading more books, Pike Place Market is a great place to help get 2018 off on the right foot.

Looking for some costume inspiration or something to take your Halloween party to the next level? Pike Place Market has you covered for all things Halloween! Head down to the Market's Lower Levels, but watch out for Market ghosts and oddities along the way...

1. Market Magic & Novelty Shop

Start your adventure at the Market Magic & Novelty Shop on Level 4. For more than four decades, owner Sheila Lyons and her team have put the 'trick' in trick or treat, delighting customers with oodles of tricks, illusions and gags. Here you'll see pictures of famous magicians that have visited the shop, turn of the century magic posters and a fun, jammed pack place of enthusiasm and wonder.

2. Sweetie's Candy

Stock up before the 31st here at Sweetie's Candy. This tiny 135-square-foot shop boasts a massive candy selection of over 200 different products, including Jelly Belly's, gummies, nostalgic candies and, of course, tons of treats for Halloween.

3. Holy Cow Records

Whether you're looking for spooky sounds to scare trick-or-treaters as they walk up to your front door or background music for your shindig, the friendly staff at Holy Cow Records will point you in the right direction. With album titles like "More Death and Horror" and "Sounds that make you Shiver!" you can't go wrong! Stop by any day of the week between 10 am and 6 pm.

4. Our Fabric Stash

The next stop on our Halloween guide is for all the crafters and DIY-ers out there. Our Fabric Stash is a consignment shop that carries yards of seemingly endless fabric, beads, threads, patterns and anything else you could possibly need for the perfect Halloween costume. Open Monday through Saturday from 10 am- 6 pm and Sunday from 11 am-5 pm.

5. Orange Dracula

Every day is Halloween at Orange Dracula! Here you'll find Frankenstein, The Addams Family, Dracula and Harry Potter inspired buttons, candles, accessories, masks and more. Check out the photo booth and take a pic with your newest find!

6. Rummage Around

Step out of Orange Dracula, take a left down the hallway and you'll find Rummage Around. Packed wall-to-wall with odds, ends, and everything in between you'll find almost anything you need (and maybe even something you didn't.) Don't wait to check out this store, the Halloween items are selling almost as quickly as they're coming in!