There’s nothing like instilling and celebrating a sense of community pride, like Rob Geary and Luis Galvan of Welcome to East Van have done since they started the brand in 2006. The goal was to inspire the community to embrace, develop, and evolve its identity. This year, like last year, they’re running the “12 Days of Giving” campaign in the heart of their neighbourhood.

Photo credit: Eric Flexyourhead on Flickr

The campaign started yesterday and until December 16th they’ll be setup by the Gastown Steam Clock to accept donations for those in need. They’ll then move to another outdoor location on the east side. Thanks to Frog Box and The Great Little Box Company they’ll be filling up on donations until December 23rd.

Here are some of the wish-list donation items that the Welcome to East Van 12 Days of Giving is hoping to collect: Canned meat, peanut butter, bags of whole wheat pasta/rice, pasta sauce, canned fruit/vegetables, cereal, baby formul, baby food. They have requested that donations NOT include homemade items, expired baby food, products containing alcohol, or open packages of food.

The signature “East Van” will also be picking up donations at the following locations that have 12 Days of Giving Boxes ready to go:

To find out more about the campaign and to see where they’ll be setting up each day, follow Welcome2EastVan and 12DayFoodDrive on Twitter.

The Great Canadian Craft Fair: Holiday Edition is taking over the Salt Building near False Creek this Saturday and Sunday.

Look out for a cozy holiday craft village full of today’s brightest + best indie makers from The Lower Mainland and beyond, as well as hands-on workshops, music, food, hot-cocoa, and more! Skip the over crowded malls and take the whole family to support handmade artists, or even try your hand at making something. You’ll be able to cross everyone off your holiday shopping list, and find some of the most unique gifts in town.

The vendor list is impressive! They’ve had such an overwhelming response from vendors they actually started a waitlist and are suggesting vendors apply for the Last Chance Craft Fair which is happening December 23rd at the Croatian Cultural Centre.

Here are just some of the vendors you can find this weekend:

The Great Canadian Craft Fair will be open Saturday, December 15, 2012 and Sunday, December 16, 2012 from 10:00am to 6:00pm daily at the Salt Building (located at 85 West 1st Ave). Tickets are $7 online and you can also grab VIP tickets (early bird entry) for $15 in advance or a family pack online for $20.

Follow Great Canadian Craft on Facebook and Twitter for more information about their events and upcoming fairs.

One of the Lower Mainland’s ultimate foodie destinations is Well Seasoned in Langley where you can grab a gift basket, take a cooking class, and pick up essentials to make meals based on Founder Angie Quaale‘s recipes. Well Seasoned’s lastest project is The Missing Ingredient, a subscription service that delivers hard-to-find specialty ingredients which have been hand-picked by culinary experts right to your door each month.

Well Seasoned knows and sells many of the best local, artisan (small batch), and quintessentially Canadian products available. Each “Missing Ingredient” box contains 4-5 product samples (ranging from spices and vinegars to gadgets and treats) along with a feature recipe card and tool tips.

You can subscribe (or gift a subscription) for 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, or a whole 12 months. Once ordered, a printable certificate and a coupon code will be emailed to the purchaser and a notification will be sent to the recipient. If it’s a surprise, you can include your own email address in the recipient’s email field so that they don’t receive that notification. Once they have the certificate and coupon code, they can order their subscription. Shipping is included in the subscription cost.

The folks at Well Seasoned have offered a 3 month subscription for The Missing Ingredient for me to give away. Here’s how you can enter to win:

• Leave a comment naming a “must have” ingredient you keep in stock (1 entry)
• Post the following on Twitter (1 entry)

I will draw one winner at random from all entries at 12:00pm on Wednesday, December 19, 2012. Follow The Missing Ingredient on Twitter and Facebook to learn more about the service.

Update The winner is Nicole! (comment Dec 13)

Struggling to find the right gift for the person who seems to have everything? How about giving the gift of a truly ‘Vancouver’ experience? There’s always something to explore, learn, sip, taste, and even paddle around here so I thought I would highlight some unique experiences that you can gift to a special someone this year:

Explore

The Forbidden Tour returns in April with their “Lost Souls of Gastown” and “Prohibition City” tours. Tickets are ^*$22 and you get an educational and entertaining walk around some of the city’s most historic (and notorious) places. They have Christmas Cards available for purchase so you can book someone on any future 2013 tour. There’s a 2 ticket package (^*$49), 4 ticket package (^*$98), and private tour package (^*$224).

Being a big fan of local history, I love the line-up of walking tours from the Vancouver Heritage Foundation. They haven’t posted their 2013 schedules yet but check back in January. In the meantime, if you know someone that loves local history too, you can purchase a Tribute Card in their name to support the Vancouver Heritage Foundation.

Taste Vancouver Food Tour in Gastown

Food and Drink

The Original Vancouver Food Tour offers a Gastown Tasting Tour, a Vancouver Brewery Tour at Molson Coors, and a Craft Beer n’ Bites Tour. Gift certificates are available from ^*$25 to ^*$500 that can be spent on individual tours or used for group tours.

Taste Vancouver Food Tours are currently offering a Christmas Culinary Tour until January 8, 2013 but their main attraction is the Gastown Food Tour which you can book individually or as a group. This walking tasting tour is hosted by “Gassy Jack” himself. Gift certificates for future tours can be purchased for either tour, for ^*$39 (includes 9 food and beverage tastings).

Vancouver Foodie Tours does a Guilty Pleasures Gourmet Tour and the World’s Best Street Eats tour along with private/group tour bookings. You can purchase gift certificates for both. Street Eats tickets are ^*$49 and Guilty Pleasures (described as 5 courses, 14 tastings, 8 stories, 3 hours of bliss) is ^*$69.

Deep Cove

Get Outside

Deep Cove Kayak is our place to go for local kayaking adventures and I discovered that they offer gift cards that are valid for retail store purchase, tours, or lessons in 2013. Try your hand at canoeing, kayaking, and stand-up paddle boarding in beautiful Deep Cove.

The Vancouver Park Board has gift cards available now that you can use in 2013 for community centres, swimming, skating, VanDusen Botanical Garden admission or an afternoon at Stanley Park Pitch and Putt. Gift cards come in ^*$50 increments and you also receive a ^*$10 bonus coupon which is valid from February to May.

Be Entertained

A night at the theatre is a fantastic gift since it includes so much more than the pure entertainment value of the production you’re going to see. It’s a night out of the house, perhaps with dinner beforehand, and time well-spent.

The Arts Club Theatre Company is currently offering 6Flex Packages (^*$329) for 6 show tickets for productions at the Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage, Granville Island Stage, and Revue Stage. They also have Granville Island 4Flex Packages (^*$159) for 4 show tickets at the Granville Island Stage and Revue Stage. Both packages contain ticket vouchers that are are valid now to August 17, 2013.

The Cultch offers gift certificates in any denomination for their season of programs as well.

If film is more your thing, you can purchase 10 Double Bill Passes (^*$98) for Pacific Cinémathèque programming and Festival Cinemas gift cards for the Park Theatre, Fifth Avenue Cinemas, and The Ridge Theatre.

Museum of Anthropology

Feed Your Brain

Some of Vancouver’s best attractions are the most educational as well (you don’t have to tell the kids that though). Here are some top picks for annual attraction passes:

Science World has a variety of membership and annual pass options like the “You and Me” (1 adult, 1 child) passes for ^*$95 or the full family pass for ^*$165.

Family memberships for the Vancouver Aquarium are ^*$138 and there are a variety of combinations available such as 1 adult and 1 child pass for ^*$90.

The Vancouver Art Gallery has gift membership options for households (^*$120), students (^*$45), out of town households (^*$75), and more. As a side note, the Gallery Store has some great artsy gift options as well.

One of my favourite (and most-recommended) places to visit is the Museum of Anthropology at UBC and I have discovered that they offer a UBC Museum and Garden Pass. Valid for 6 months from the purchase date, you can have unlimited visits to the Museum of Anthropology, UBC Botanical Garden, Nitobe Memorial Garden and Beaty Biodiversity Museum, plus discounts at other campus locations. Passes are available for adults (^*$36.96), youth/student/senior (^*$31.36), and families of 2 adults and up to 4 kids under 18 (^*$95.20). Passholders also receive discounts at the UBC Bookstore and savings on admission to the Greenheart Forest Canopy Walkway.

Vancouver Aquarium

I’m certain more suggestions will flow in once this post is published so I’ll be updating it with new information for the next week or so. Hopefully this list can inspire your gift-giving this season, or perhaps your general activities list for the year. Happy Holidays!

^*Prices listed in this post may or may not include HST and other online processing fees that may apply. Please consult the websites of the companies and organizations directly for exact pricing and information.

Vancouver-based My Little Green Shop is a hip online boutique that carries hundreds of healthy and environmentally sustainable products for kids and families.

From organic swaddle blankets and cotton diapers, to bamboo eating utensil and BPA-free food containers. They also offer a variety of fun and stylish clothing, bags, accessories, stationary and toys.

Mindful of the unfortunate fact that healthy, eco-friendly items tend to come with hefty price tags, they do their best to find items that are as affordable as possible. They also offer specials and host a deals page to pass on the savings to their customers.

My Little Green Shop has offered up a $40 gift certificate for one lucky Miss604 reader. The winner can purchase products in the e-shop and they will receive free shipping within the City of Vancouver. Here’s how you can enter to win:

• Leave a comment on this post (1 entry)
• Re-Pin this post on Pinterest including @Miss604 & @MyLittleGrnShop (1 entry)
• Post the following on Twitter (1 entry)

I will draw one winner at random from all entries at 12:00pm on Tuesday, December 18, 2012. Follow My Little Green Shop on Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest to check out their products.

Update The winner is Krissy!