Kristina's

Kristina's is a small family-run gift shop at 3a Kirkgate, a couple of minutes off the Market Place, and it has been trading since June 2015. The stock follows rules the owner set from the start. Everything sold here should be Fairtrade, made in the UK, locally produced, recycled or personalised. That gives the shelves a coherence most gift shops lack, and it means the thing you carry home has a story attached rather than a shipping label. For anyone buying a present in Thirsk with a maker's name on it, this is the first door to try.

From Tea Time Cafe at 87 Market Place, cross to the top corner of the square and turn into Kirkgate. The shop is at 3a, a couple of minutes away on flat pavement, and the postcode for a sat nav is YO7 1PQ.

It sits on the natural line between the square and the two Kirkgate museums, so most people pass the door on the way to Thirsk Museum or the World of James Herriot rather than making a separate trip of it. Drivers should leave the car on the Market Place, where the first hour is free, or on Marage Road. Thirsk station is about a mile and a half west of town, so about half an hour on foot on the level, or a taxi. There is no rank at the station, though there is one by the clock on the square.

Browse, and give it twenty minutes if you want to do it properly. The stock runs to jewellery, homeware, cards, toys and seasonal pieces, with makers from around here sitting alongside Fairtrade lines brought in from further afield.

Two things are worth knowing before you walk in. The first is the spread of prices, which starts at pocket-money trinkets for children spending their holiday coins and runs up to proper presents. The second is the personalising, which is a reason to call in at the start of a trip rather than on the morning you leave, since anything made up for you takes time.

The buying policy is the whole point of the place, and it is what separates these shelves from the usual souvenir mix. The size helps too. You can look at everything properly in twenty minutes, the owner is usually the person serving you, and a question about where something came from gets a real answer rather than a shrug. The local makers are the section to head for if you want a present that says Yorkshire without printing it on a tea towel. Add the position, two minutes from the square and on the way to the museums, and it is an easy shop to fit into a day rather than a detour you have to plan.

Hours are the thing to check. Small independents set their own and they shift with the season, so look at their website or ring before making a special trip, and do not assume a Sunday or a bank holiday works. Come early in your visit if you want something personalised, since that takes time the shop cannot always find on the spot. Fold it into the Kirkgate walk rather than treating it as a separate outing, and do the museums afterwards, so you are not carrying a wrapped present round a Victorian surgery for an hour. If you are buying for children, there is a pocket-money end to the range, which solves the holiday-coins problem without anyone leaving with tat.