It’s that time of year again when our minds turn to fun, frivolity, friends, family and feasting! To celebrate the festive season last year, we presented The Practice’s guide to Christmas shopping, revealing the coolest and quirkiest items we’d love to wake up to come December 25^th. This year, we’re marking the season by rounding up our top places to shop online and offline for those all important presents! Let’s get started…

Forget Harrods, Hamleys and Fortnum’s, this year, there’s a new wave of innovative retail spaces popping up, enhancing the way we view the shopping experience. One of the most inventive to make an appearance in recent times, is The Line, a concept and lifestyle store where shoppers can choose from an edited selection of pieces. The Line started out as an online retail site, but the project, initiated by Vanessa Traina and Morgan Wendelborn, has expanded to include an offline boutique called The Apartment. This is literally an apartment space in New York, where everything, from the furniture to clothes, art, and even toothpaste, has been carefully chosen and up for sale. Anyone is welcome to visit the collection by appointment or purchase the same selection of items online.

The Apartment from The Line

For gadget geeks, or even just those wishing to purchase a new tablet or product in style, Google have launched six new pop up display stores in New York, New Jersey, Washington D.C, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Sacramento. Entitled the Winter Wonderlab, this is Google’s first foray into retail, and just in time for Christmas. Visitors will have the chance to test out Google products, from the brand new Nexus 7, Chromecast, Chromebooks and Google Play, and even purchase selected items according to availability. Each space will also house Play Zones for shoppers to play on the gadgets on display, and test out the full range of Google Play services. Unfortunately, this doesn’t mean visitors will have any more luck getting hold of the new Nexus 5 or Google Glass though, but for Google and tech fans, we think the shops are definitely worth a visit.

Winter Wonderlab by Google

And we wish we could jet over to Sydney for our Christmas shopping to experience new concept store, Rotate by The Cool Hunter. The Cool Hunter has long been one of our favourite sites for design inspiration, and now, the team behind it have decided to launch a store that will feature an array of completely different products every two months, along with a different theme and even store space. Offerings will include pieces from local brands as well as international designers, with themes to include ‘Summer Lovers’, ‘The Art Hunter’, ‘Colour Your World’, and ‘Winter Wonderland.’ If the project is anything like their last, ‘The Cool House’, we’re sure it will be highly successful.

Rotate by The Cool Hunter

Have you visited or do you plan on visiting any unique retail spaces this holiday season? We’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences, so please tweet to us @PracticeDigital, and share your comments on our Facebook page.