Downtown New Haven wants to be your home for the holidays, and it’s got the deals, promotions and experiences to prove it.
On Black Friday, for instance, Town Green District is launching a seasonal “tree farm” from 4:30 to 8:30 at Orange and Chapel Streets, offering Christmas trees and accessories (as well as beverages) for purchase—plus, while supplies last, a bonus $35 gift card to an “independently owned local retail shop” when you buy a tree. Other bonuses can be found within The Bell, an onsite “indoor crafting space” facilitating free activities such as candle-dipping and cookie-decorating.
The next day, on Small Business Saturday, The Shops at Yale have arranged for roving yuletide carolers, selfies with Mr. and Mrs. Claus and, from 11 to 4, a popup market centered on Sherman’s Alley, featuring vendors, a DJ, an ice carving demonstration, free kettle corn and more, chased with a wider hot chocolate promotion.
And that’s just the beginning of what’s on offer this weekend. Canvassing virtually every small business downtown (and some not-so-small ones), here are all the holiday-season kickoff presents we could unwrap:
Apple Store 🍏 | Website | Location
Friday through Monday, buy select Apple tech at regular prices and receive bonus gift cards of up to $200.
Bark & Vine 🪴 | Website | Location
Friday through Sunday, take 20% off the shop’s wide array of indoor plants. Also, from noon to 6 on Saturday, find Seven16, a local supplier and applier of permanent jewelry, popping up in-store, with any jewelry purchases earning a free gift from B&V.
Bluemercury 💄 | Website | Location
Now through December 4, take 20% off purchases of the store’s luxury beauty products totaling $200 or more—and, assuming this branch matches the national website, you can up that to 25% off $800+ or 30% off $1,500+.
Blue Nile 👖 | Location
Friday only, take 20% off everything inside this apparel store.
Ceramics by Kiara Matos 🏺 | Website | Location
Friday (noon to 4) and Saturday (10 to 4), take 20% off Matos’s precise yet artistic cups, pitchers and functional bowls, plus 10% off most decorative items. Saturday only, enjoy “warm apple cider and cookies” (while supplies last).
EBM & Civvies Vintage ⚜️ | Website | Location
Saturday and Sunday, take 20% off any one item from the shop’s inventory of “midcentury homewares, antique ephemera, and true vintage clothing.”
Edible Arrangements 🍉 | Website | Location
Friday only, take 10% off any order.
Elm City Games 🎲 | Website | Location
Friday through Sunday, take up to 70% off regularly priced items storewide, with a buy-two-get-one deal available for games already on clearance. Wrapped mystery gifts—“all good stuff,” we’re told—will be available for 35% off the regular price of whatever’s inside, and Saturday only, buy a $100 gift card and get a bonus $15 gift card.
Enson’s 👔 | Website | Location
Friday and Saturday, take 10% off purchases of $250 or more and 20% off purchases of $500 or more. Feel free to offer the staff a hearty congratulations in return; it’s the high-end menswear and tailoring shop’s 100th year in business.
Giggling Pig 🎨 | Website | Location
Friday only, take up to 25% off goods and services—which appear to include gift certificates for future events—at this art and party studio for kids and adults.
J.Crew 🧥 | Website | Location
“We always have a really great Black Friday sale,” one manager told us, but even the employees won’t know the details until the night before. (Online rumors suggest a nationwide discount in the neighborhood of 50% off.)
J. Press 👕 | Website | Location
Now through Monday, take 15% off every dress shirt, chunky sweater, silk necktie or anything else with a J. Press label—roughly 90% of the store, we’re told.
Lou Lou 🧣 | Website | Location
Friday only, select scarves will be marked down to $10. (Meanwhile, as part of an ongoing promotion, college and graduate students as well as Yale employees, both university and hospital, can take 20% off one full-price item.)
Lululemon 🧘 | Website | Location
Employees were circumspect, but they told us customers can expect a larger-than-usual selection of markdowns on Friday—“until they’re gone.”
MINIPNG 👚 | Website | Location
This “funky fashion brand” is putting the “fun” in that description, offering $5 and $10 bins Friday through Sunday with $60 of finders-keepers cash hidden somewhere within. The store is also offering 25% off rack pieces—or 30% if you find one of three special coins hidden daily around the neighborhood, with hints provided on MINIPNG’s Instagram.
More Amour Boutique 👗 | Website | Location
Friday and Saturday, play a scratch-off promotion to win discounts of up to 30% across the shop’s bold array of womenswear. Saturday only, enjoy complimentary chocolates and, when you spend more than $150, a free gift (while supplies last).
Neville Wisdom’s Fashion Design Studio 🪡 | Website | Location
Friday through Sunday, take 35 to 50% off the store’s entire inventory of locally made garments.
Paper Source ✉️ | Website | Location
Today through Tuesday, the stationery store’s wrapping paper rolls are buy-one-get-one-50%-off (as are holiday card sets on an indefinite basis), while select 2025 planners are straight-up 50% off.
Plush 🛹 | Website | Location
Friday through Sunday, take up to 60% off select items at this sleek skate shop and 20% off all other full-price (non-shoe) items. For shoes, buy any three pairs for $100 total (in-store only).
Raggs ⌚️ | Website | Location
As the mens- and womenswear shop celebrates 40 years in business, take 20% off everything from Friday to Sunday. Saturday between 1 and 6, attend a “Suiting 101” class while enjoying complimentary Arethusa cheeses and other refreshments. And be sure to enter the prize drawing for an $895 suit.
Rainbow 👢 | Website | Location
Now through whenever the budget clothing shop decides to stop, take 25% off boots and booties, in addition to extra discounts on jewelry, lingerie and more. (Also, amazingly, the shop stocks $3, $5 and $10 racks of clothing on what appears to be a regular basis.)
Rundown 👟 | Website | Location
Friday through Sunday, “the whole store is gonna be on sale,” owner Christian Scott says, offering discounts up to 50% in addition to first come-first serve “doorbuster deals” and giveaways. FYI, he’s planning to open the bright and airy sneaker shop brighter and earlier than usual on Friday—at 9 a.m., if memory serves.
Sneaker Junkies ⛹️ | Website | Location
Friday through Sunday, buy one pair of sneakers and get another (presumably of equal or lesser value) half off. Also take 20% off all apparel. Like Rundown, the store is opening early on Friday, in this case at 10 a.m.
Snipes 🧦 | Website | Location
Friday through Monday, take 50% off “a lot” of the sportswear shop’s shoes, with some pairs priced as low as $29.99. Also take 25% off Ralph Lauren Polo and Nike fleeces. Graphic tees will be two for $30, and packs of socks will be reduced to $6—or $3 if you count a BOGO stacker.
Soap-edi 🧼 | Website | Location
Friday and Saturday, this all-natural skin- and haircare shop is offering BOGO “creams, lotions, shea butters and sugar scrubs.”
Softwear 🧢 | Website | Location
Friday to Sunday, take 30% off storewide at this “vintage and archival” men’s and women’s (but mostly men’s) clothing shop, which is set to channel Santa by “stashing free tees throughout the store.” Also promised are “insane $10 bins that are ALSO 30% off.”
Soulful Threads 👠 | Website | Location
During The Shops at Yale holiday market on Saturday, this vintage apparel store tucked into the back of Sherman’s Alley pledges “amazing holiday deals,” though we don’t know what.
Strange Ways 🎒 | Website | Location
Saturday only, this retailer of edgy patches, pins and other forms of flair celebrates 10 years in business with “drinks, food, a photo booth, and 10% off storewide.”
Urban Outfitters 🛍️ | Website | Location
“There is going to be a Black Friday sale,” we’re told, though details couldn’t be shared.
Walker Loden 🎁 | Website | Location
Now through Monday, this longstanding local gift shop is offering 20% off all jewelry and 33% off vegan leather totes. But you might want to wait until December 12, when the shop’s 35th annual one-day holiday sale will be offering 20 to 50% off storewide.
Written and photographed by Dan Mims. Image features a postcard view of downtown New Haven during a holiday season past. Because mistakes can happen (and businesses can change their plans or run out of supplies), readers are encouraged to verify details and availability before acting on any promotion.
