Le Panier is my favorite gift store in Montreal. It won an award as “the best gift store in Canada”  so others agree with me. It is chock full of gourmet food items,  kitchenware, jewelry, retro candy, pet stuff, kids toys, and fun gadgets. If you can’t decide what to buy, gift baskets are easily assembled from the jams, hot sauces, condiments, Rogers chocolates, scented items, and much, much more.

Look for the little tasting bowls and crackers to try out new products, oogle the candy corner or feast on their own 5 year old cheddar, sausages made by the Mennonites, and their homemade fudge.

Location: 300 Lakeshore Rd, Pointe Claire
corner: St-Joachim
Phone:  514-695-7038
Fax:  514-695-2820
Hours:  Regular plus Sun 10-5
www.thepanier.com

Q1: Traditional Mother’s Day gifts might be pj’s or jewelry, could you give us some ideas of where we might go for these?

Zebra Lingerie Outlet Store is out of the way, up in a Chabanel building. You can really score well ($5 or $2 racks) in this neat liquidation store for bras, sports bras, undies (6/$10) and nighties, pj’s and bathrobes  in names you might know: Lily of France, Vassarette, Lou, Fully, Curvation Bestform, Exquisite Form and more. The Zebra staff can ensure that you are wearing the right bra specifically selected and shaped for your body. There are decent try-on rooms too.

Location: 9500 Meilleur St. (Lobby)
corner: Louvain
Phone: 514-858-9254
Hours: Tues- Wed 9:30-2, Thurs-Fri 9-6, Sat 9-2

B. Shechtman Jewellers is a third generation jewelry wholesaler can turn all your creative ideas into sparkling pieces. Come in with a concept, a piece of old jewelry, or a photo of something you like and he can make it up to your specifications creating a one-of-a-kind piece just for you. You can change a ring into a necklace or a pin into a pendant, let his imagination guide you.

Rings, bracelets, earrings, necklaces, brooches and pendants can be crafted out of gold or platinum and embellished with diamonds, pearls, rubies, emeralds, sapphires or other precious stones.
Of course the standard tennis bracelets, eternity bands, Tiffany bands, diamond stud earrings, wedding and engagement rings can all be purchased here – for less. They offer a full range of repair services and appraisals..

Location: 1435 St-Alexandre St., suite 1290,
corner: Mayor
Phone:514-842-0222

Q2: What about chocolates and flowers?

How about them both together? For Mother’s Day there are chocolate flower bouquets and  flower pots filled with different kinds of flowers, pretty baskets and gift packages ($6-$100) at Splendid Club Chocolate.

You can pick up yummy inexpensive chocolate gifts (or for yourself!), if you sneak over to this building’s outlet on the main floor for factory direct chocolate bargains (even Kosher) on caramels, raspberry-filled, cappuccino, almond bark, lollipops and solid or hollow novelties (Santas, bunnies, teddies) and boxed ballotins. Corporate gifts are available by appointment.

Location: 4810 Jean Talon ouest, Suite 100
corner: Victoria
Phone: 514-737-1105 x 224
Hours: Mon-Fri 10-3
www.splendidchocolates.com

Q3:  Some Moms have enough stuff, what can you suggest for them?

Buy tickets for a show: Tickets for “Lies My Father Told Me” with Broadway star Theodore Bikel and Patsy Gallant is now showing at the Segal Centre.

Location: Segal Centre, 5170 Cote Ste. Catherine Rd.
Phone: 514-739-7944
www.segalcentre.org

And the run of our own homegrown hugely popular “Schwartz’s The Musical” has been extended until this Saturday.

Location: Centaur Theatre, 453  St. Francois Xavier
Phone: 514-288-3161
www.centaurtheatrre.com

Spa 200o is offering for a Mother’s Day Special where all taxes will be included purchase of a gift card. The card can be used on any services in the spa. That’s 15% off on everything.

Location: 3563 Boul. St-Charles
Phone: 514-695-5040
www.spa2000.ca

Q4:  If you really get stuck for ideas, can you suggest some cool gift shops?

Pour Quoi Pas, located right downtown, is a colorful shop for gifts, parties, the kitchen, kids, girls and guys. For Mom’s how about some flashy colorful umbrellas, foldable collapsible water bottle or those rolling shopping carts?
Some fun things that they sell: a hook that looks like a sparrow sitting on a tree branch; bands that you slip over a beer bottle to identify whose it is; a voodoo doll toothpick holder; an alarm clock that sounds like a rooster, cat, dog, monkey or owl; a banana keeper to carry one for lunch; a purse hook to hang it on a restaurant table; or a duck shower cap.

Location: 275 Sherbrooke W
corner: du Parc
Phone: 514-524-2124

Mortimer Snodgrass, in old Montreal has good ideas for Mom:  grow kits for herbs or baby peppers or an indoor tree (by local company Seracon). Also made in Canada – pinot noir bubble bath or bath bon bons bombs that look like chocolates. An “entertaining” Mom might like the sparrow party glass markers, or the  dollhouse kitchen knick knacks. A green gift could be the pretty enviro sacs which scrunch up so small you can fit a few in your purse.

With its cutesy name, this gift shop has cutesy – and practical –  gifts. Love the salad servers that look like a growing plant and the electro man extension cord. Green toys for kids are here, like the hand-painted-in-Montreal bike bell, puppets handmade in Canada from recycled fabrics or the kiddie tea set made out of recycled milk jugs. Hugely popular are the monkeys – plastic toppers which fit on your keys so you can easily tell them apart. The neoprene lunch bag is useful, as it insulates well for cold or hot foods, and cutesy is the humungastache fetch toy, which makes your dog look like he has a mustache when he grabs the ball in his mouth.

Location: 56 Notre Dame ouest
Phone: 514-499 -2851
www.mortimersnodgrass.com

Le Panier is a huge gift store which is chock full of gourmet food items, kitchenware and gifts. You can certainly find something for Mom easily here.

There are 50 ready made baskets (baby, gourmet, birthday, sympathy), but custom-made baskets are easily assembled from the jams, hot sauces, Rogers chocolates, toys, jewelry, gadgets, and much, much more. Look for the little tasting bowls and crackers to try out new products, the candy corner or feast on their own 5-year-old cheddar, sausages made by the Mennonites, and their homemade fudge.

Location: 300 Lakeshore Road
corner: St-Joachim
www.thepanier.com

There comes a time in every gift shopping list when you hit the wall. It’s either because you realize you have run out of time or because you really cannot think of anything to get that person. But don’t despair, I have an easy way out of your dilemma.

This is the moment you let your fingers do the walking to your phone. Look at the list below, and call up one of the gift basket companies. Gift baskets have come a long way since someone wrapped up some fruit and nuts in a wicker basket and covered it with plastic wrap.

One of the huge success stories in this industry is La Premiere Compagnie de Paniers, where seventeen years ago Hope Milner started out making gift baskets in her basement. When the business outgrew her home, she rented some space on Bord du Lac on the edge of Pointe Claire Village. Customers started asking her if they could buy her goodies without the baskets, and she suddenly found herself turning into a gift store business.

This precipitated a move into the center of town. A few years later she had to double her space while venturing into other retail areas such as toys, jewelry, home decor and Premier Moissan baked goods, turning it into an old fashioned country style store Then came the coup de grace – her store was given the “Best Gift Store in Canada” award. You might think that was the happy ending, but there is a coda.

Last Spring, Hope was approached to sell her business, and she accepted. She is still on the scene though, as she is consulting for the new owners in order to continue the story of the “little basket company that could” as they grow into an online store and franchise the concept.

In all these years, she and the other companies listed below have learned how to take the likes, interests or taste buds of your gift recipients and turn them into a gift basket. Sure, they still fill them with chocolate, cookies and toiletries, but you might also find ones with: soup, pedicure supplies, martinis, anti-oxidant food, movies, gardening tools or sugar-free delights, all beautifully and precariously piled into a basket, a fry pan, a car, a vase or an Adirondack chair for example.

La Premiere Compagnie de Paniers, 300 Bord du Lac at St. Joachim St., Pointe Claire. Phone: 514-695-7038. Hours: Monday to Wednesday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Thursday and Friday 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., Saturday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. This basket company lives in a huge gift store which is chock full of gourmet food items, kitchenware and gifts. Baskets are easily assembled from the jams, hot sauces, condiments, Rogers chocolates, scented items, housewares, toys and much, much more. Popular baskets over the years are the Bord du Lac, Mont Tremblant, Decadence and The Classic. www.thepanier.com

Cornucopia, 85 de Castelnau St. West at St. Urbain St. Phone: 514-276-4712 or 800-977-4712. Hours: Monday to Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and by appointment. Open since 1977, this is the oldest gift basket company in town. The company offers their basketed gifts ($29.95 to $230) in a kid’s riding toy, leather magazine rack, salad bowl, a champagne bucket or a wicker rocker. Send an anti-stress basket, a cinema lovers, a sugar-free or fat-free, anti-oxidant or organic, a martini one, a healthy fresh fruit one, a personal care kit, the chocoholic or one just for the kids. You can choose from their colorful brochure or online at www.cornucopia.ca

Basket Greetings, Phone: 514-323-7213. Always popular at this Italian-inspired company are the very healthy fruit baskets or the decadent gourmet ones: coffee, tea, cheeses, smoked salmon, cookies and chocolates. Themed ones for a gardener, for a pedicure, or baskets just for men can be prepared too. Baskets are ready for all occasions, including new babies, hospital visits and birthdays starting at $35 plus tax and delivery. Corporate accounts are welcome. www.basketgreetings.com

Gift-A-Gram, 4336 St. Martin Blvd. West at Francoeur St., Laval. Phone: 450-335-2030. Hours: Monday to Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Gift baskets can be based on themes like The World’s Best Soup, Current Events, Coffee Break, Home Improvement, or Sports Jock. On their website you can click by price and they sort them in order for you, starting at $19.95. Since 1980, this company has also been crooning telegrams, with singers in costumes as cupids, gorillas, Batmen, town criers or Barneys, with prices starting at $40. You can combine the telegram, character messenger and baskets as a gift-a-gram or balloon-a-gram. www.giftagram.com