Gig Harbor is a town in transition. What was once a sleepy little maritime town with naught but a few residents is being developed. Yep, it's getting all trendy. It's even getting good enough that non-residents may wish to venture over the bridge and enjoy a day of Christmas shopping in the harbor. There are two distinct areas especially worth checking out: Downtown Gig Harbor, which is tucked along the picturesque harbor, and the cheekily named Uptown, a newly developed chain-store haven. Pick either or both. Choose your shopping adventure.

Uptown

Uptown Gig Harbor is a fine place to spend a few hours shopping. Shops here are chain stores, but with a pleasing variety so that you could potentially shop for everyone on your list right here. If what you seek is in the apparel department, stores include Chico's, J Jill, Coldwater Creek and Marshalls. If you're shopping for young'ns, make sure to head to Teaching Toys, Too - a great toy store with a focus on safe and educational toys, which may sound boring, but the toys are excellent.

Finally, there may be no more festive store than The Garden Room, which sounds like a place you might find garden gnomes or perhaps a nice trellis. Instead, the store is packed with holiday goodness with a particular focus on Christmas ornaments. Need to find a gift for someone and just don't know what to get? This is the place. Icicle ornaments galore greet you upon entry. Venture inside and find unique Christmas light sets and even fish ornaments. Yeah. I said fish ornaments.

Take breaks from your shopping with several tasty restaurants, from Panera Bread to Pizzeria Fondi. There's even a Massage Envy at Uptown. Ah, modern development at its finest.

Downtown Gig Harbor

On the flipside is downtown Gig Harbor, which has absolutely no chain stores in sight and definitely no Massage Envy. The area consists of a row of shops along Harborview Drive. It's great for walking as all shops are within a few blocks of each other.

Antiques

Sassy Bones (7807 Pioneer) is somewhat of an antique store, but more of a random finds kind of place. Venture inside and you'll find hand-carved figurines from Africa, vintage textiles and table cloths and a few random items. A thimble set with a different dog on each thimble, anyone? If you like your antiques with a little less quirk, there's also Pickers Northwest at 3226 Harborview.

Galleries

One thing this waterfront village does right is galleries. You'll find fine arts aplenty, custom framing at Waters Edge Gallery & Framery, and glass at Turner Glass Works, where you can also learn to lamp work or make glass beads. Gallery Row is but one of the galleries along Harborview, but it's unique in that it has been planted in this very spot since 1989. Gallery Row showcases 15 unique artists, ranging from a woodturner to water colors to sumi-e painter Patrice Bruzas, who showed me some of her paintings when I stopped by. The gallery has large gifts like artwork, but also smaller jewelry pieces, ornaments and other great gifts. If you don't want to give the gift of art, Bruzas also teaches sumi-e classes a couple times per month. Give someone the gift of creativity.

Other Gift Items

Wander along Harborview and you'll find plenty of other stores worthy of your Christmas shopping - jewelry stores, book stores, clothing stores and more. Keep an eye out at GigHarborWaterfront.org for special events in downtown Gig Harbor, including shopping events that feature discounts and giveaways.