With the seconds ticking away toward Christmas, the festive mood is definitely with us and everyone has started thinking about gift ideas.
When it comes to gifts, you can’t go wrong with a nicely-designed calendar, which can be a great decoration in your home, and also helps you to keep up with upcoming appointments and stay organized through the year. Check our recommendations below to see what’s on trend.
Photodarium Calendar
Available on Taobao; RMB 265; RMB 8 for shipping
The Photodarium Calendar features 365 exquisite, high-quality reproductions of photographs by 24 photographers from different countries, carefully selected from the works submitted to the annual Polaroid photograph competition initiated by Germany-based magazine Slanted. Each of the photos comes with a short biography of the photographer, as well as information about the background to the shoot. Each page can be torn off and kept as a postcard or bookmark, or even framed as an elegant addition to your wall.
Art Page-A-Day Gallery Calendar
Available on Amazon and Taobao; RMB 108; free shipping
It’s like an art gallery on your the desktop, with a year of stunningly curated fine art and design works, capturing rich color and fine detail to give you a close appreciation of the masterpieces. Featured works range from surreal cityscapes to portraits, from the early Roman period to Renaissance classics, from Vermeer to Botticelli. It was a complete sell out last year so you definitely don’t want to miss out on this one.
故宫日历 Calendar of the Forbidden City
Available on Amazon and Taobao; RMB 50; free shipping
Its calendar has been one of the most popular souvenirs from the Forbidden City Museum since 2010, seven decades after the first calendar of its kind was launched in 1933. It features works from the museum’s collections, and combines them with other traditional Chinese cultural elements including the animal zodiac, the 24 solar terms, and Chinese festivals. It’s nicely designed with some room at the bottom for recording appointments and other daily events. With a budget of only RMB 50, this is a sweet buy indeed.
豆瓣电影日历 Douban Movie Calendar
Available on Taobao; RMB 85; free shipping
This would be a great gift for movie lovers. Each page features a movie that is highly recommended by critics on Douban, a website exclusively for sharing music and movies. Each page comes with a screenshot and a short line excerpted from the featured movie, which includes classic and recently released films from China and the rest of the world.
Himekuri Mini Calendar
Available on Taobao; RMB 130; free shipping
Launched by Himekuri Stationary, the calendar stands out for its ingenious design, being only 21cm wide and 5cm high respectively. The calendar presents different series of colorful scenes created by the illustrator Mao Hagihara, and each one can be used as a post-it note in your journal, book, or anywhere you want to identify the date.
Photos: Taobao.com
