A Buffalo-centric Etsy Christmas List for Santas with Queen City Roots
Buffalo Santas can delight their loved ones with cheerful spins on hometown pride. Wares from the shelves of local Etsy makers include Bills Mafia wrapping paper and a broken table ornament. While the holiday is near and shipping deadlines are closing, Buffalo-centric makers sell year-round, have inspiration for great anytime gifts and many have options for on-the-ground pick up. The ShopCraft gallery at 773 Elmwood Ave. features Buffalo artisans and some of the makers on this list.
Take a peek. Continue the Buffalo winter season merrily with more fodder: Christmas cards featuring whimsy like a Buf-fa-la-la-la-la-lo word play and Josh Allen holding a Christmas tree as he jumps over a Bills fans’ broken tables.
Each has Etsy item has a story. The couple who made the tree topper say they were inspired to make sturdy cutouts because of the Bills quarterback’s habit of leaping. “We were just in awe as it happened again,” wrote Jessica Poblocki of Queen City Crafts 716.
For a hot cocoa mug with wintry visions of Buffalo city streetscapes, including Allentown, Mary Kunz Goldman starts by sketching outdoors in “plein air” with pen and ink before transferring images to Etsy objets d’art. “The Allen Street houses were in the snow when I drew them, from a coffeehouse across the street, so all I did was add watercolor and falling snow,” she explained by email. “This scene always strikes me as cozy because these houses are among the oldest in the city, and as I drew them, I thought about how many Buffalo winters they had seen.”
Another bit of Etsy-Buffalo holiday cheer: Retro-style original art prints celebrating classics like Franks RedHot sauce bottle as a flower vase, a smiling “good as heck” beef on weck –– and a favorite dancing “hot and ready” pierogi. “While I was living elsewhere, I began to realize how many traditions — especially in terms of food — were unique to Buffalo,” said the arist Molly Beres in an email. “I grew up making pierogi with my grandma, aunts and cousins. So that illustration is close to my heart and makes me really happy … There is a lot of beauty ordinary things.”
Find more beauty in the artistic offerings from makers with Queen City roots on this short list.
Molly Illustration
For a whimsical, contemporary and mid-century-esque take on Buffalo classics, Molly Beres offers frameable prints of Frank’s RedHot sauce repurposed as a flower vase, a glamourous pierogi with legs and a smiling beef on weck. “When I was a little kid, I saw a clip of animated movie theater foods encouraging you to run to the lobby and get a snack,” wrote Beres. “The mid-century art style of that cartoon stuck with me and has influenced my work ever since. The little beef on weck character I designed is no exception. The Frank’s design was inspired by the idea that bottles can be vases and weeds can be flowers.”
Prints of “Hot N Ready Pierogi,” “Beef on Weck, It’s Good as Heck Print,” and “Frank’s Vase” in assorted sizes, $12-20.
Selling at MollyIllustration.etsy.com + Buffalo ShopCraft, 773 Elmwood Ave., Buffalo, carries her work locally
JF Vintage
Find your way home with a heart ornament with a Buffalo map at its center. Artist Joshua Fraass, of jfvintage.com, makes city art from his collection of more than 100 vintage atlases. “It is a perfect gift for someone that lives in Buffalo or someone that is from Buffalo and has moved away to remember home,” he wrote.
His handmade Buffalo map heart ornament is made on a 3.25” wood heart with twine attached for hanging. The back of the ornament is stained brown and is branded with jf.vintage etched into the wood. $15.95 with free shipping.
Selling at jfvintage.com and JfVintageArt.etsy.com + Buffalo ShopCraft, 773 Elmwood Ave., Buffalo, carries her work locally
Mary Kunz Goldman Art
Mary Kunz Goldman spent most of her career as a Buffalo News writer and editor. Her latest turn as an artist chronicling the city’s neighborhoods, houses and streetscapes reflects her love of off-the-beaten-track scenes. The mugs in this holiday roundup have Christmas cards that match and include a snowy day view she drew of Allen Street houses as she sat across the street in a café. To her, the Delaware Avenue brownstones epitomize the grace of the Gilded Age. “Later I made them December-ish by adding a fanciful Christmas tree, and then I splashed them with gold watercolor. I love how festive they look!” she wrote.
Mugs are $19.99 for 11 ounces and $24.99 for the 15-ounce size.
Selling at MaryKunzGoldmanArt.etsy.com + the Buffalo Botanical Gardens gift shop, 2655 South Park Ave., and D’Avolio, 5409 Main St., Williamsville, carry her work locally.
Born & Raised Shoppe
Warm up in a red sweatshirt with styled vintage logo of a station wagon with a Christmas tree tied to the roof, inspired by the 1989 “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” movie. Brittany Miller has a collection of items intended to evoke “a deep sense of pride for the place I call home.” The Christmas line up at her Born and Raised Shoppe include a buffalo-shaped ornament with a drone photo of Main Street that her husband Alexander shot. They are, she wrote, “little reminders of times shared together with family and friends in a place known as the City of Good Neighbors.”
A “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” movie inspired crewneck sweatshirt for the holidays in Buffalo. Unisex fit, 50 percent preshrunk cotton/50 percent polyester, $43.99.
Selling at BornandRaisedShoppe.etsy.com
Queen City Crafts 716
Josh Allen’s field jumping prowess of 2021 left Jessica Poblocki and her husband in awe. “We just couldn’t stop thinking about Bills football and the athleticism of Josh Allen!” she wrote. When Allen’s second leap over a Kansas City Chiefs player led to memes, they got an idea. The Bills quarterback would make a great tree topper alternative to the traditional angels. “We went right to work on it. We had it made by October 24th, 2021. On October 26th, we had to get our Christmas tree out and set it up to get some pictures of the tree topper. We posted them for sale the night of Halloween 2021, and the rest is history,” she said in an email.
Find them at QueenCityCrafts716.etsy.com for $22.
Cam James Lifestyle
Makers Jessica Pozantides and Marissa Wroblewski agree that getting a present is always a good thing. Make it stand out with Bills-themed, zebra “Zubaz” Buffalo patterned gift wrap! “There is nothing more fun than seeing our crazy, Buffalo personality under the tree,” wrote Pozantides. “We noticed that there weren’t many Buffalo wrapping paper options, so we wanted to fill a gap.”
A 24 by 36 inch roll, $13.12, or 24 by 60 inches for $16.95.
Find it at CamJamesLifestyle.etsy.com
Tiny Buffalo Design Co.
Artist Lauren Van Osten mixes humor with Buffalo’s icons in a series of holiday cards that feature a dangling beef on weck sandwich and the carol inspired line, “Weck the Halls,” and a note for Santa with wings and a beer instead of the traditional cookies and milk. “I am inspired by the everyday traditions of Buffalo and the small things that make this city and it’s people special,” she wrote by email. “The art I make is designed to spread love and gratitude and holiday cheer to friends and family both near and far.”
Each Buffalo holiday cards, $6, is printed on 100 percent recycled premium matte paper and is blank inside. The A2 size, 4.25 by 5.5 inches comes with a brown envelope and is packaged in a clear cello sleeve.
Find them at TinyBuffaloDesignsCo.etsy.com
Silent Mylo Studio
Alison Kurek presses her own whimsical aluminum ornaments that feature her illustration of buffalos tromping through the snow wearing Santa hats. She explains that her “Winter journey Buffalo” scene evokes finding peace and joy in a hectic season. The design is also available as a greeting card.
Ornaments are $18. At SilentMyloStudio.etsy.com + Buffalo ShopCraft, 773 Elmwood Ave., Buffalo, carries her work locally
Buffalo Seamery
Fewer calories than the real thing, Liz Brodfuehrer’s sponge candy socks still qualify as a sweet treat! She loves sewing and started her business after she couldn’t find handmade things for her boys. She branched out with her own fabric designs, which sends to a Polish factory where the cotton socks are made. “No need to wait for a special holiday,” she writes, “you can enjoy these sponge candy socks all year long!”
Socks, which are 90 percent cotton with nylon and spandex for stretch, $15.
Find them at BuffaloSeamery.etsy.com + her local shop Buffalo Seamery & Gifts at 299 Parkside Ave., Buffalo, is also well stocked.
Magical Monday Market
Colorado-based Carolyn Kent created these garlands because of her Bills-fan brother-in-law who converted the entire family into loyal Bills Mafia followers. Since she started selling them on Etsy, she has shipped them all over the U.S. “I love that I can spread some Buffalove to loyal fans everywhere,” she wrote.
Garlands are about $33 and ship the day after the order is placed.
Find them at MagicalMondayMarkets.etsy.com
Petewave
As a lifelong Bills fan, making a mini “smash table,” a local symbol of over-the-top game exuberance, was a natural for Peter Friol when he first started using his new 3-D printer. Then, someone asked him to make it into an ornament. “That was a fun challenge, and I’m so glad I did it,” he wrote. He’s expanded into woodworking and laser engraving and is glad to arrange local pickup near his Lancaster-Depew area home.
The table ornament is about $20.
Find them at Petewave.etsy.com. To buy last minute local gifts after shipping deadlines have passed contact Friol via Etsy.
