Make this year's gift-giving decisions less hectic

Looking for a change of pace from hectic power shopping this holiday season? Serenity shopping is right around the corner.

Many of Norfolk’s top attractions – museums, the zoo and more – have gift shops with eclectic options.

The gift-shop atmosphere is cozy and personal. Checking off your holiday list in the comfort of an art gallery gift shop or a garden boutique is a treat for the gift-giver and recipient.

Today, our Compass gift guide focuses on a sampling of these shops and the treasures inside.

Chrysler Museum of Art, 245 W. Olney Road. 664-6200. Hours: Noon to 5 p.m. Sunday; 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday-Saturday.

Chrysler Museum of Art is known for its class and its glass. The new glass studio adjacent to the museum is stirring up even more interest in the art of glass. You can be a part of the buzz with glass gifts

Featured museum artist and Williamsburg resident Emilio Santini’s mini-vases urge you to lean in and look closely at these rare finds for $10; they’re rivaled only by Santini-designed earrings at $16.

Virginia Beach artist Valerie Sanson’s featured work at the shop includes flower pins made with semiprecious gems and pearls presented with a matching seed packet for the garden. They are priced from $18 to $51.

Art can be functional at home, too. Baskets made of telephone wires in various sizes, from $26 to $160, dazzle the eye. Zulu weavers in South Africa make the kaleidoscopic-colored baskets.

Carolann Malbrough of Portsmouth shopped at the Chrysler boutique recently after watching a glass-blowing demonstration with her children. She had her eye on postcard books featuring artwork by Georgia O’Keefe, Paul Cézanne and others. “I would love to get that,” Malbrough said.

And no worries about duplicating when giving gifts from the Chrysler, she pointed out:

“Not everybody’s going to have it.”

Virginia Zoo, 3500 Granby St. 441-2374. www.virginiazoo.org. Hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily.

Animals can be spotted at turn at the Virginia Zoo. In the gift shop, though, one animal keeps slipping away from the staff: the red panda.

It’s not unusual for the stuffed animal to be sold out. At $15.99, it is the most-popular item, said Shonda Brantley, gift shop manager.

As you might expect, the zoo gift shop is full of animal toys for children – red panda and beyond. Eco Rescue Team trucks and action figures would make for hours of fun for little ones.

Try the African Giraffe Research Set or the Everglades Gator Rescue Set for $16.99.

The shop also has plenty of animal-inspired gadgets. Wild print binoculars are $7.99. Zoo books are a great find in paperback and hardcover, from $3.79 to $8.99.

Brantley strives to keep the inventory true to the zoo; with the animals featured in the shop all inhabiting the Norfolk site. The moon bear stuffed animal, for example, at $11.99, was made especially for the Virginia Zoo.

In the coming weeks, look for a holiday tent featuring zoo animal Christmas tree ornaments near the gift shop.

Norfolk Botanical Garden, 6700 Azalea Garden Road. 441-5830. www.norfolkbotanicalgarden.org. Hours: 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday; noon-5 p.m. Sunday.

It’s the season of lights, so why not bring light into someone’s home?

Here, you can choose the gift of a lighted bonsai tree, or better yet, a bouquet of snow willow branches featuring 60 lights for $35.95.

This shop is the place for the green thumbs on your gift list. Selections worth considering: gloves for $7.95; an indoor houseplant tool set that includes a cultivator, trowel and transplanter for $8.95; and books galore, from Southern gardening to roses and more.

The shop’s gifts for children sneak in learning with fun. The Lady Bug Land Observation Habitat for $21.99 includes a coupon to mail away for lady bug larvae. Check out The Amazing Balancing Eagle that rightfully claims it will “mystify your friends” for $4.25 – ages 5 and older.

The Botanical Garden’s connection to eagles carries into the gift shop even further with coffee mugs, T-shirts, magnets and note cards.

Beginning Dec. 1, Norfolk Botanical Garden members will receive 20 percent off a one-time gift shop purchase through Dec. 12.

d’Art Center, Selden Arcade, 208 E. Main St. 625-4211. Hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday; 1-5 p.m. Sunday. Closed Monday.

Local artists take center stage at d’Art Center’s annual holiday gift shop. On display in Selden Arcade through the end of December, the gifts are handmade, and many are from the artists who work in adjacent studios.

Regional artist Ivanka Mincheva’s intricate ceramic ornaments are $12. An angel with blue wings and a bell is one of many standouts.

D’Art Center’s resident artist Cathy Jo Ramsey’s slumped wine bottle-turned-cheese tray presented with a serving knife is $25.

Yorktown’s Susan Welteroth’s glass Santa on a stand with a blue bird is $69.

Shopping for little ones this season? Linda Banyay of Suffolk has made dresses, size 2 to 7, from embroidered vintage pillow cases, $30. Jewelry, scarves and framed art also are featured.

D’ARTini Night, a holiday open house event, will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. Dec. 2 and offers 10 percent off holiday gift shop purchases. Stacy Parker, 222-5432, stacy.parker@pilotonline.com