I'm a fan of Ten Thousand Villages (and their Annex location) because it fills a void. I have many grad-school era friends with "stuff white people like" bourgeois feelings about ethical giving and have many a time found myself hunting frantically at the last moment for a gift to please one of these friends as a result.

Enter the Villages. With ethnic and often ethical gifts from around the world from jewelery to scarves to music, there's a little something here for everybody. Particularly when the everybody in question doesn't want their decorative candles to come from a candle sweat shop.

Knick knackery isn't for everyone, but Ten Thousand Villages also features so-called practical gifts. For a recent baby-shower, I found a "lullabies from around the world" CD that went over particularly well.

What I like ultimately about Ten Thousand Villages aside from the pretty, cozy interior, choices and good service, is that it features plenty of the same sort of slightly impersonal gift options as a traditional gift or card shop, but they don't FEEL like impersonal gift options. And since a lot of it is fair trade friendly and other ethical in other ways, you can feel good about it. Or at least a little better than you might otherwise.

Ten Thousand Villages
474 Bloor Street W.
Toronto, ON M5S 1X8
(416) 533-8476

*photo by Alicia Solario from Stock Xchng.