Campus cheerful, campus grown, campus inspired, campus comfy, campus glittery and campus thoughtful — here are some blue-and-gold gift ideas for the holidays.
If you’re making a list, you could surely use this first item: a pen made from olive tree wood, collected when trees are removed for health or safety reasons, or when trees are pruned. When you’re using one of these pens, you’ll be holding a piece of the campus in your hand!
See the olive-wood pen and 31 more gift suggestions in the slideshow at right, click on the image to open the slideshow. Links are included in the captions, to help you find the items.
Speaking of olive trees, don’t forget UC Davis’ very own olive oils — and maybe a Gunrock horse head pourer for olive oil and wine bottles. We’ve also got you covered for opening and preserving your wine — with an Aggie corkscrew and bottle stopper.
Olive oil and wine aficionados also may be interested in a wheel or two: the Defects Wheel for Olive Oil (developed by a member of the UC Davis Olive Center’s tasting panel) and the Wine Aroma Wheel (developed by Professor Emerita Ann Noble).
We’ve got a wheel for honey flavor, too, and the honey to go with it — both from the UC Davis Honey and Pollination Center.
Now for some comfy, courtesy of UC Davis Stores: “Wrap yourself in the soft feel of your favorite T-shirt” with an oversize blanket — 100 percent cotton jersey — featuring a patchwork of Aggie logos. The stores also carry UC Davis-branded pillows in a variety of color schemes.
For campus thoughtful, take a look at the 25th anniversary edition of Prized Writing, a selection of undergraduates’ works, 20 in all, selected by a panel of judges as the best of the best essays or scientific and technical writing from courses across the campus.
The topics range widely, from raising guide dogs to raising wild birds, from linguistic analysis of “hella” to a sociological take on the beach cruiser, from a profile of a popular broadcaster to a first-hand account of how obesity shapes destiny, from an argument on the origins of cannabis to an argument against a new treatment protocol for rabies.
We have many more book suggestions in our annual winter roundup of recent books by faculty and graduates. Read it here.
Spread some campus cheer with Aggie ornaments (including an alumni snowperson) and snow globes, and a blue-and-gold Santa figurine.
Campus-inspired jewelry is available from:
- UC Davis Stores — Earrings, necklaces, bracelets and more.
- Arboretum and Public Garden — Oak leaf pins and pendants, and acorn earrings. The pins, pendants and acorn caps are sterling silver, cast in the lost wax technique, in molds created from a real leaf and acorn cap from the arboretum. The acorn seeds are hand-carved from salvaged oak.
- Bohart Museum of Entomology — Earrings and necklaces featuring butterflies and dragonflies, a moth, a honeybee and a ladybug. (The Bohart museum also carries a children’s book, The Story of the Dogface Butterfly, by Fran Keller, who earned her Ph.D. earlier this year.)
We can't help with putting a new car in your driveway. But how about a UC Davis bicycle from Sacramento's City Bicycle Co., founded and owned by a pair of 2012 graduates: Vince Vu and Ary Ashoor? Their City Type One model can be operated as a fixed-gear or single-speed bike.
Where to look, where to find
UC Davis Stores Fall-Winter Look Book (digital catalog)
Downtown Store: 630 Second St. (at F Street)
Arboretum headquarters: Valley Oak Cottage on La Rue Road
Bohart Museum of Entomology: 1124 Academic Surge
Bohart Museum Society Gift Shop (online catalog)
Gift cards and certificates
• UC Davis Stores — Regular gift cards (that you can put in a card or a gift box) and e-gift cards, in amounts ranging from $20 to $200. Click here for more information.
• Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts — Gift certificates for tickets for the Mondavi Center’s presenting season, and for Department of Music and Department of Theatre and Dance events. Gift certificates can be purchased for any amount and do not expire. Buy them at the box office: in person (noon-6 p.m. Monday-Saturday, and one hour before all ticketed events) or by phone, (530) 754-2787 or toll-free (866) 754-2787. Click here for more information.
CAAA memberships
When filling out the online membership form, you can designate “This membership is a gift for someone else.”
Media Resources
Dave Jones, Dateline, 530-752-6556, dljones@ucdavis.edu