The Globe and Mail

This time of year, you won't find miracles on 34th Street. It's hard to spot the holiday spirit on a row of chain stores where shopping is like a rugby scrum. But New York offers rich retail experiences that will fill you with childish glee – you just have to know where to look.

After all, this is one of the world's great shopping cities. This is where sales last from Halloween through New Year's and subway riders even tolerate being squeezed by bag- laden out-of-towners. (Everyone in New York schleps.) On upper Madison Avenue, every gift box is fastened with satin ribbon, while downtown, graffiti-clad walls disguise wonderful merchandise at tiny shops. You're bound to mark each and every one off your list as fast as you can yell, “Taxi!”

Uptown, don't write off the city's famous department stores. Barneys New York (660 Madison Ave., 212-826-8900; barneys.com) serves haute baubles and yards of cashmere with an impish grin. The shop's famous window displays resemble charming, overblown craft projects: This year's is a papier-mâché ode to Saturday Night Live , including characters such as the Coneheads. The fun continues inside, where copper Brillo pads decorate a holiday tree. Barneys carries a zillion top fashion and home labels, but their house brand is a high-quality, lower-cost alternative. Wood-handled umbrellas in kicky checks and stripes ($125; all prices U.S. dollars) and cotton sateen pyjamas in cranberry and navy ($260) are two nice finds for men. For ladies, try buttery tie-dyed leather pouches ($155) and Taytu handbags ($345), made in Ethiopia and lined with cotton prints. Wool pashminas from Virginia Johnson ($215) are patterned with camels, sharks or turtles.

Midtown's Bryant Park transforms into a Christmas village this time of year with dozens of vendors (theholidayshopsatbryantpark.com), and offers a free skating rink. But for unique gifts, cross the street to Kinokuniya (1073 Avenue of the Americas, 212-869-1700; kinokuniya.com), the NYC outpost of this Japanese bookstore chain. Magazines and gift books occupy the top two floors, but downstairs is a wonderland of stationery, art supplies, calendars and trinkets straight from Japan. There's a staggering selection of cutesy day planners (from $8.70), some with stickers that will make any 10-year-old girl swoon – and dutifully record homework assignments – while paper clips in unconventional shapes and colours (from $3.70 a box) make great stocking stuffers. Head upstairs to purchase a make-your-own ukulele kit ($39.95).

For home goods and holiday decor, head downtown to ABC Home (888 Broadway, 212-473-3000; abchome.com). The main level of this warehouse-sized shop looks like a crystalline magic forest.

Glittery chandeliers stand in for mossy branches and the fairies and angels come with strings for hanging on Christmas trees. A palm-sized kit of wooden reindeer and barn ($55) is handmade in Germany, while a set of jewel-tone icicle ornaments ($24 for 12) are straight out of the Fifties. Wade through the holiday displays to reach the floor's outskirts, where a bazaar of Indian jewellery and gifts, stacks of ethnic textiles, hand-thrown pottery and an “eco-intelligence” corner promise even more shopping bliss.

The ordinary is elevated to extraordinary at Kiosk (95 Spring St., 212-226-8601; kioskkiosk.com), a SoHo shop that showcases household objects from a new country every few months. Right now, it's Portugal. Children's tambourines ($15-$18), silky hand cream in a beautiful metallic tube ($18), toothpicks hand-carved to look like swords ($15/pack) and sardines ($6) are available now, and each item is packaged with a funny anecdote about its origins or use.