The holiday season is now in full swing on campus. You could simply wait to buy your gifts at home, but it is possible to pick just the right personal gifts on campus with a bit of thought.  Here are five places where you can buy memorable gifts right here on campus, any of which will say “Illini” in their own unique way.

Illini Union Bookstore

Our beloved bookstore provides a range of wonderful resources when it comes to choosing gifts. The bookstore has released some Illinois-themed Christmas decorations. The small snowman ($19.99), shatterproof bauble ($9.99), and bell ornaments ($13.99) are so cute that you may want them for yourself rather than for holiday gifts. The gifts can be ordered online directly from the Illini Union Bookstore website or bought at the store.

Promenade

Promenade is the gift store for the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts: simply enter the gate at Krannert, then look to your right. Promenade has a wide range of products that could make great holiday gifts, including photography prints, Krannert postcards ($4.50), notebooks, bookmarks, and photo frames. If your friend adores the arts, why not consider gifting the newly released photo gallery of Monet’s passion, the gardens at Giverny ($15.95).

Hanjin

Hanjin is a Korean gift shop located on Sixth Street near Lando Place that has a wide variety of gifts. The shop includes plush toys, stationery, decorative cards and boxes, and notebooks. Plush toys of favorite characters such as Doraemon, My Neighbor TOTORO, and Spongebob are popular choices for gifts, and currently, the store has a sale with up to 50% discounts on many featured products. A gorgeous 60 centimeter teddy bear could be yours—or your friend’s, if you can bear to give it away—for as little as $39.99.

Underground Printing

Considering customized gifts? Underground Printing has you covered. Add any phrase you like to a T-shirt, or go further and choose an image before adding text and special visual effects. The store offers a vast range of choices of things to print on, ranging from women’s, men’s and kids’ outfits, to hats, bags, accessories and even drink ware, office supplies, and novelties. Start designing now at Underground Printing’s website or at their store on the corner of John and Sixth Streets.

Gameday Spirit

Do you have sports fans among your family or friends? Gameday Spirit store has just the gifts for them, with prices ranging from $409 for an Illinois fire pit to just $1.49 for a mini pennant. As the Official Fan Store of the Fighting Illini, Gameday Spirit particularly serves alumni and fans of the University of Illinois. You could buy an Illinois baseball ($9.99), a fighting Illini deluxe basketball ($22.99), or even an Illinois golf gift set ($32.99) to deliver to the fighting Illini among your family members to remind them of sporting times.

Yifan is a sophomore in LAS.

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