Christmas Shopping in Brighton: Your Complete Guide

A guide to Christmas Shopping in Brighton

With over 500 shops to choose from, it’s hard to know where to go first. So, we’ve done the hard work for you - sorting your shopping list into five easy categories and signposting you to the best places to find your gifts. 

This is by no means an exhaustive list, but a useful starting point that will help you target where to go first - the rest is up to you!

Also recommended:

• Top Christmas Events Brighton
• North Laine Brighton: A locals guide

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Vintage, Retro and Second-Hand

Best spot to start: North Laine

Clothes, art, Tiffany lamps, taxidermied otters, 70’s card games, whatever you’re after, it’s going to be in the North Laine. 

Luckily for you, we’ve a local’s guide to the North Laine plotting out a vintage clothing trail from Trafalgar Street to Sydney Street, signposting you to 11 fantastic locations loaded with second-hand gems. 

From rails stuffed with a rainbow of Hawaiian shirts at To Be Worn Again, to bespoke vintage glamour tucked away in Snoopers Attic, you can be sure the perfect fashion find is right around the corner. 

Below Snoopers Attic is Brighton’s legendary Snoopers Paradise, and Snoopers has got duplicates of things you didn’t even know existed. 

Old records, cameras, vintage tins, walking sticks, dated kids toys, masks, football programmes going back to the mid-20th century. It is truly a paradise for snoopers, for the bargain bin warriors, but also the pop culture iconographers, those who cherish and preserve old marketing materials, print-outs, and collectibles. 

It’s a similar story around the corner at The North Laine Bazaar.

Not only that, but because everything is second-hand, you’re not only catching pure bargains, but also helping with humanity’s growing waste problem by not buying new. Good for you.

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Kids

Best spots to start: Gardner Street and Churchill Square

Shopping for children is so fun. For little ones, Gardner Street is your best bet for finding something they’ll adore, with three great independent shops just a stones throw from one another. 

Creative toys specialist, Whirligig Toys provides engaging, exciting toys and projects targeted to each age bracket. 

Toby Tiger is overflowing with adorable, colourful clothes for babies, toddlers and tiny people, with a great stock of toys and books for younger kids. 

Daisy Daisy has practically everything - stuffed toys and puppets, science experiments, dress up, stickers, early education, classic toys, crafts… this place is overflowing with exciting gift opportunities. 

If, for whatever unlikely reason, you haven’t found the perfect present yet, Churchill Square, home of 66 high-street brands including Build-A-Bear Workshop, H&M Kids, Claire’s, et cetera - of course, we encourage you to support local businesses over major corporations but perhaps the Christmas shopping frenzy calls for a wide range of sources. 

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Boutiques

Brighton has a boatload of boutiques - we’re defining ‘boutique’ here as a shop where you buy your Mum something a little bit nice. 

For the fashionably-minded mother, we have elegant vintage dresses at Pretty Eccentric to boho glamour at All About Audrey, fabulous fragrances from Soliflore, homeware from places with names like HOLD, DOWSE, and Lavender Room that is the perfect balance of shabby and chic, and even a little bit of posh choccy from Leonida’s - a boutique is whatever you want it to be. 

The majority of these are independent North Laine boutiques, flanked by even more boutiques - there are simply too many to name - go have a wander!

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Hobbies

Yes, ‘hobbies and interests’ is exceptionally broad - but if you know exactly what your hyperfixated friend or family member would want, you’ve already ordered it online. No, you’re here because you have a vague sense of ‘crystals’ or ‘crafts’ or ‘board games’ and a good browse in a dedicated specific-interest store is right up your alley.

Furthermore, there’s a huge benefit to visiting in-store; in most cases you’ll receive excellent, tailored recommendations that are sure to impress your special someone this Christmas.

In the interest of not labelling your loved one as a ‘nerd’, ‘hippy’, or, even worse - a ‘creative’, we’ve organised each section by the sort of thing you might buy them:

 

Film posters and pop culture knick-knacks

The Brighton Requirement has all sorts of officially licensed film merchandise, from props to clothes to posters, and Forbidden Planet can cover the rest. Retro Cards is a dedicated independent poster shop, and Timeslip is the place to go for anything cult or classic film. 

 

Crystals and tarot cards

Did you know that traditionally, your first tarot set must come as a gift? There’s probably someone in your life secretly manifesting it this Christmas. 

North Laine is where you’re headed, described by some as Brighton’s bohemian and cultural quarter. Here, you’ll find the particularly mystical ‘metaphysical supply shop’ Gaia’s Magick, plucked straight off Glastonbury highstreet, Native American goods specialist Two Feathers, and a shop literally called Crystals.

 

Board games and Warhammer

Aside from the actual Warhammer store in town, we have the absolutely fabulous Dice Saloon - one of the UK’s largest gaming centres with a storefront chocka with boardgames and model-making supplies. Dave’s Comics is another treasure-trove of geeky paraphernalia, and, as described - comic books. 

 

Notebooks, paperbacks and fancy pens

Pen to Paper and Papersmiths, both on Sydney Street, are the stationary-fanatic’s dream. 

If your person prefers their books with the words already in them, you can get a stack of them second-hand (affordable and sustainable) at Books For Amnesty, or check out City Books. We also have an absolutely mega Waterstone’s on North Street.

 

Cigars, scotch and drones

Though these aren’t exclusively male interests, MenKind probably has something for you - it’s the kind of place where you can buy Guinness marmalade and ‘Golf-opoly’ (exactly what it sounds like.)

For the more refined palette, you’ll want to check out Cut Your Wolf Loose for whiskies, and Brighton Your Spirit, for all sorts of spirits. 

There’s two fantastic cigar specialists and tobacconists in town - Arcadia Cigars and Taylor’s Tobacconists. 

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Christmas Markets and Pop-ups

Sadly, Brighton’s iconic Christmas Market/ Winter Fayre is taking a break this year, but that doesn’t mean you’ll have to skip out on the pop-up Christmas market experience. In fact, you’ll be hard-pressed to visit them all.