Eastbayri.com

Since nothing much is made in the USA any more, ’tis the season to enrich overseas factory owners who pay their employees a pittance.

Except holiday shopping need not always be that way. Turns out Christmas can be about more than flat screens and tablets churned out on the far side of the planet. There are loads of great gifts that come from much closer to home — goods and services made and offered by small business neighbors who could use a boost right about now.

Suggestions for this list include:

• Great food — How about a gift certificate to a local restaurant, corner seafood market or grocery, bakery, vineyard, caterer, coffee shop, pizzeria or pub? Even farmers’ markets sometimes offer gift certificates — Farm Fresh RI (to which many Sakonnet and South Coast farms belong) calls theirs ‘Fresh Bucks.’

• Fun and games — Sailing lessons, kayak tours, skating lessons, 18 holes or a trip to the driving range, community theater, college hoops and hockey tickets, bicycle tune-ups, ferry rides, horse rides, Aquidneck train rides, bowling, museums ... And for deeper pockets, one thing we still build here is great boats of every sort and size.

• Self-improvement: Gym memberships, courses (you name the subject, somebody nearby teaches it — Lees Market offers great cooking classes, same with URI and gardening, UMass and its ‘Second Half’ studies in Fall River), beauty parlor, weight loss programs (on second thought - terrible idea).

• Nice things: Art (check out one of the nearby art groups and galleries), andcrafts (senior citizens groups have great offerings at this time of year); something from the garden center, jewelry maker, dressmaker, or cabinet shop.

• Helpful stuff: Driveway plowing, lawn mowing, firewood, house cleaning, visit from nearby computer tech, chimney cleaning, body shop work on that long-dented car door, Tiverton pay-as-you-throw trash bags (they even come in festive holiday maroon - but are probably made someplace far away) — all practical and appreciated. What could be sweeter than a gift-wrapped bag of Escobar Farm moo manure?

The opportunities are endless, the money stays close to home, it more peaceful than the mall and community bonds are renewed.

Happy holidays indeed!