2018 gift guide for people who love Atlanta

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Whether you consider yourself a devoted urbanist or a city dweller who simply goes with the flow, there’s a special, heartwarming sense of pride in calling Atlanta home—and there’s no better way to express that pride than with an ATL-centric Christmas gift.

We’ve forgone the obvious picks—like Hotlanta Hot Sauce and Lenox Square gift cards—to cull a list of Atlanta-specific or locally made present ideas as the holidays approach, ranging from heady reads about Big Peach history to tie bars that shout, “F.I.L.A.!”

Neighborhood-specific prints

$27 | Welcome to the Neighborhoods

As every Atlanta festivalgoer can attest, the city has no shortage of makers angling to capitalize on the territorial biases of neighborhood boosters. But these prints by artist Caleb Morris excel at capturing, in a vintage-cool way, the landmarks that make ATL ’hoods—from West End to Decatur and Buckhead—inimitable.

Small-batch maps

$30 | Native Maps

For a broader perspective—and a gift that strives to celebrate Atlanta as “a place of economic and cultural magnitude”—these hand-pulled screen prints by Native Maps celebrate each ATL enclave with boundary designations and neighborhood names in tiny letters. They’re made of heavy-duty paper, most of which is 100 percent recycled, meant for framing.

Framable Atlanta gear

$20 | Tee Public

So this gift might be made for wearing, but since Curbed is more about home decor than fashion, why not frame a comic-style T-shirt as a wall-mounted homage to the Emmy-winning juggernaut that is Atlanta, the show? Voila, instant cool! The shirts are also available as onesies, tank tops, and baseball T-shirts. And here’s a pro tip: Discounts do happen. (Don't watch TV? Frame a Run the Jewels basketball jersey for comparable cred.)

PCM chronicle, in photos

$45 | Schiffer Books

Whether you consider PCM an overpriced money vacuum or the most creative, well-executed redevelopment project in Atlanta history, the gorgeous coffee-table photography compilation that is Blake Burton’s Ponce City Market: The Rise, Fall, and Rebirth of Atlanta’s Largest Building is sure to captivate.

Burton’s lens captures the hulking 1926 edifice from its miserable Recession-era depths to its opening day as an instant, global tourist attraction, with commentary along the way from Atlanta history and architecture experts.

Urban scavenger hunts

$15 | Clue Town Books

From the Beltline’s Eastside Trail to Decatur Square, Emory University, and beyond, Clue Town Books provides scavenger hunts readymade for Atlanta’s most walkable areas (and now Athens and Savannah, too). Using landmarks to solve puzzles, hunters embark on city-exploring missions that take between an hour and 90 minutes. Perfect for sightseers, curious suburbanites, and kids over the age of 12.

Engrossing read

$35 (hardcover) | Barnes & Noble

Published last year but still an important and wide-ranging book that’s often cited in media reports about Atlanta (most recently in the Guardian’s excellent “Atlanta Week” coverage), Mark Pendergrast’s City on the Verge: Atlanta and the Fight for America’s Urban Future digs deep into the implications of projects like the Beltline in a maturing but messy metropolis.

Neighborhood-specific artisan soaps

$9.50 | Little 5 Points

Because what’s more in-town Atlanta than a Little Five Points-specific bar of soap from a local company called Mama?

Locally made stamped things

$18.99 | Block and Hammer

The answer to the question above could be, just maybe, a custom-stamped, polished “ATL” tie bar (or spoon, or bookmark—there are lots of options at the shop) with typewriter font, which lets your colleagues or fellow groomsmen know exactly where you’re from.

Georgia-made candles

$10 | Kinfolk of Mine

For that candle connoisseur in your life, consider these off-kilter but invigorating soy candles from Georgia- and Florida-based Kinfolk of Mine. Scent names like “Hair of the Dog” and “Slobbers and Drools” are more uplifting than they sound. (Tip: The piney “Lucky Bastard” conjures up serious holiday spirit.)

The Curbed Atlanta holiday gift guide: 9 perfect presents for ATL fanatics