Urban sophistication and small-town charm

The single biggest decision you will need to make while shopping in and around the city of Kingston during the yuletide season is where to begin. And as you entertain both holiday guests as well as your options for gifting to said guests, you simply cannot go wrong with the city’s timeless triumvirate: the Rondout, Mid-town and Uptown Kingston. Each neighborhood presents its own unique array of answers to the three convivial, gift-giving queries of who, what and where.

Let us embark on our jovial journey at the river’s edge and wind our way up. The Rondout is nestled serenely along the creek with two bridges looming largely overhead and historic buildings lining the Strand. Quaint and bijou shops are abundant and when dressed up for the holidays, showcase windows brimming with possibilities. There is an excellent educational and nature-based store all abuzz with options for children, teens and adults alike, a knitter’s haven and textile paradise, chic vintage clothing shops, ageless antique stores, a unique and sustainable boutique complete with designer-originals and shops bearing both beautiful jewelry and intricate and delicate treasures.  Fear not…If you are the sort of shopper who becomes overwhelmed by options, there are plenty of cozy restaurants and luxuriating spas and salons where a gift certificate might just be the appropriate selection.  

For our second stop, lift your eyes toward the starry skies and head due north from the Rondout to the Mid-town area. With a more citified vibe, Kingston’s Mid-town cultural and commercial scenes are alive, kicking and most certainly not to be overlooked. If you love to shop for vintage wares there are a plethora of possibilities in the neighborhood.  Rewind has a resplendent array of pre-loved vintage clothes with many notable names.  Red Owl is a commodious, considered and well-curated collective with over 50 vendors to explore. Free to Thrift, a new kid on the block and a very welcome addition, has relocated to Smith Avenue in a sweeping space full of clothes, shoes and bags. And while Mid-town is overflowing with vintage offerings, the neighborhood has another glorious gift to unwrap. Art is literally everywhere you look (from massive murals to multiple motifs) and it is dotted with studios and workshops beyond what most might imagine. Support local artists and the art scene by investigating these studios as they form some of the unique foundations and cornerstones of Mid-town Kingston’s charms. Need yet another option? Present someone with a gifted invitation to try a pottery and/or art class with ample choices offered at Cornell Creative Art Center or DRAW Studio among others.

And as we near the end of our travels, we head Uptown. Uptown Kingston is a lovely blend of the past and present with idyllic streets from a bygone era now featuring classy boutiques, bars and bistros. With twinkling holiday lights strewn about decorated window wonderlands, evergreen adornments and weather-sheltered covered sidewalks (for now,) Uptown makes a great place to shop regardless of the weather.  Can you hear a holiday song in the air? Here one can revel in several fine purveyors of instruments, music lessons and accompaniment studios, multiple music memorabilia and vinyl venues and a haberdashery with a blue hue and jazzy vibe. 

Shop gourmet treats for our most beloved furry friends at a pet boutique, a well-loved and carefully curated community bookstore with a bar and cafe to replenish both your body and mind, an inclusive gift and stationery shop for Queer and LGBTQIA+ featuring upcycled clothes and jewelry, an environmentally focused refillery and a stylish yet functional homestead and kitchen store which provides culinary workshops. Is browsing more your cup of tea? Multiple blocks lined with curious curio shops filled with little tchotchkes abound…. Antiques stores with multiple vendors provide seemingly endless options for a gift to keep the past alive and bring back memories that have long since been forgotten. 

A gentle downward slope and a mere block away is the Kingston Plaza where you can find a full range of cannabis products and complements, handy hardware, tackle and tools, and the requisite New Year resolution gym membership and of course, much more.

Unique feature

To state that Kingston’s unique feature is that it is in fact, a city, might sound a tad on the nose.  However, this is a holiday that celebrates the glowing nose of Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer, so perhaps a nose will lead you in the right direction. Kingston is a city that has it all, complete with three distinct neighborhoods and an abundance of options within each of these locales.

Holiday Open Houses

Uptown Kingston’s Snowflake Festival, Friday, December 5th, 6 to 8 pm

Rondout Kingston’s Wintertide Festival Saturday, November 29, 11 a.m.–7 p.m.

Parking

The Rondout has lots of parking. When you reach the bottom of the hill on Broadway turn either right or left. There are two lots, one on the corner of Broadway and one down West Strand Street. One can also find ample on-street parking down every road.

Midtown’s best lot is on Cornell Street right across from Red Owl and Frank Guido’s Little Italy. 

Uptown Kingston has two lots on North Front Street, one on either side.  If you are going to the Kingston Plaza, there should be no shortage of available parking.