By Lauren Lipton

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — There are a lot of fun places to shop this holiday season.

One, at the Philadelphia Art Alliance, begins Tuesday and continues all week.

“ ’Shop on the Square’ is a new event that we’re hosting this year,” says Sarah Archer, chief curator at the Art Alliance (251 South 18th Street).  “(It’s) a sale that includes handmade goods and jewelry, tableware, toys, clothing, all sorts of wonderful, unique things, some of which are local, some are from Philadelphia artists and designers, and some are from around the country.”

And Archer says their event might help you with that hard-to-buy-for person on your gift list.

“We always talk about the person who has everything, and how you find something special, and something that’s handmade and unique is a way of telling somebody, ‘You know, I found this, and it’s as unique as you are.  Nobody else will have this.’ ”

There are shops in museums all over our area.  Here are some more examples…

If you’re looking for something out of this world, or for the end of the world, the museum shop at the Penn Museum (33rd and South Streets, on the University of Pennsylvania campus) offers gifts linked to the current exhibition, Maya 2012: Lords of Time, and the supposed prediction for the end of the world on December 21st.

(The Penn Museum gift shop also sells items tied to its permanent exhibit of Egyptian artifacts. Photo provided)

—-

Of course you should also check out the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Barnes, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the National Museum of American Jewish History, and many others for gift shops full of fun and unique items.

And, for this week, that’s “Positively Philadelphia!”

“Positively Philadelphia” main page