A dozen items made in Massachusetts to add to your holiday shopping list – The Boston Globe

The new items span a wide range, from the quirky to the everyday. Since we’re in the thick of the holiday shopping season, I decided to keep this list focused on things you might give as gifts.

What’s the benefit of perhaps spending a little more than you might on Amazon or at TJ Maxx? Consider smaller apparel makers, for example.

“There’s a history to our product,” says Robert Kidder, owner of the New England Shirt Company in Fall River. It was founded in 1933 and claims to be the country’s oldest still-active maker of ready-to-wear shirts.

“There’s the quality aspect of it, and there is the employment aspect of it,” Kidder says.

More than 20 people work at the company, and Kidder was determined to keep it going even after a 2018 flood destroyed the factory.

And many of these gift-y items — caramels excepted — are built for the long haul. As Anthony LaChapelle, co-owner of Chelsea Clocks, says, “Our products last forever.” The company regularly maintains and repairs clocks it made in the early years of the 20th century.

Bonus fact: Did you know that all the paper for printed money in the United States is made by a company in Massachusetts? For those who’ll give the gift of cash this season, keep reading below.

Thomas & Thomas fly-fishing rods are all made in Greenfield, but they’re sold in more than 20 countries around the world. In 1981, President Ronald Reagan had a pair of custom salmon rods made as a wedding gift for Lady Diana and Prince Charles, and celebrity anglers like Eric Clapton and Joe Montana have also been spotted using the company’s rods, which start at around $600. A custom bamboo rod can go for as much as $10,000, says vice president John Wolstenholme. The company was founded in 1969 and named for its two founders: Tom Dorsey and Tom Maxwell.

The vinyl revival has been bubbling along — nearly 50 million records were sold last year, according to Billboard — and it has brought with it a renewed interest in turntables. Woburn-based U-Turn Audio got its start with a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign in 2012.

“There was a serious lack of quality turntables under $500,” says cofounder Ben Carter. “Most entry-level turntables sounded bad and were poorly built.”

The company sold about 1,000 turntables as part of that campaign, and it has since expanded its product line to include turntables priced from $249 to $1,300.

Customers include “both first-time vinyl listeners and seasoned audiophiles,” Carter says. “A lot of folks who got their first turntable from us 10 years ago are now upgrading to newer models, which is great to see.”

Carter says the company has shipped about 150,000 record players since it got started.

Perhaps the least expensive item on this list is a balsa glider made in Wakefield by Guillow’s ($3.29) — though it sold for 2 cents in the 1940s. The company got its start in 1926, founded by a World War I Navy flyer, Paul K. Guillow. In addition to basic balsa aircraft, the company also sells model airplanes (some of which also fly) based on the Wright Flyer, the F-14 Tomcat, and the P-51 Mustang, among others.

Just five people work at Noble & Cooley in Granville. But they make about 500 snare drums and 80 drum sets each year — and every employee is also a drummer. Founded in 1854, the company originally relied on water power for its operations, and during the Civil War it made marching drums for the Union army. (These days, drummers like Phil Collins and Tré Cool of Green Day use its gear.) A snare drum from Noble & Cooley starts at $1,100, and a three-piece drum set starts at $3,500.

Most of 1620 Workwear’s products are made at its factory in East Boston, many of them using stretchy fabric from Tweave, a mill in Fall River. CEO Ted DeInnocentis says they’re committed to “continuing the great textile heritage that our great state pioneered.” The company’s top-selling product this year is the rip-resistant, quick-drying $198 Shop Pant.

Steve Hollinger designed the first Kayalu Kayalite to solve a problem he’d encountered: When kayaking at night in Boston Harbor, he wanted a cheap and reliable light so that other boaters would see him. A basic Kayalite sells for $60, and can be easily attached to the top deck of a kayak and is powered by AA batteries; if it happens to come loose, it floats. They’re made at Hollinger’s studio in Boston’s Fort Point Channel neighborhood.

Everything that the New England Shirt Company sells, from Oxfords to flannels to trousers to handkerchiefs, is made in Fall River, some of it from fabric produced elsewhere in New England. Robert Kidder bought the company in 2008, after it had been shuttered.

Kidder says this year’s best-selling product is its line of casual overshirts and shirt jackets, which are typically worn over a t-shirt. They sell for $250 to $350; Oxfords are $178. “We’re not inexpensive, but we’re not luxury, either,” Kidder says.

Chelsea Clocks traces its roots back to the 1880s, and during World War II, nearly every ship and sub in the Navy had one aboard. “The clocks were designed to survive a naval battle without shattering,” says co-owner and president Anthony LaChapelle. Today, you’ll find the company’s timepieces in the White House. The company’s line of Patriot clocks and barometers, which harken back to the World War II era, start at $285.

A $6 package of caramels from McCrea’s is very much at home tucked into a Christmas stocking. The flavors include maple, single malt scotch, and black lava sea salt. And they’re produced and packaged in Hyde Park, using 30-gallon copper kettles and a candy-wrapping machine made in Springfield in the 1930s. Founder and CEO Jason McCrea was previously a database programmer before starting the company in 2012. The caramels can be shipped anywhere, or online orders can be picked up in Hyde Park.

If there’s a guitarist on your list: Carlino Guitars makes some of its electric guitars and all of its elaborately decorated leather guitar straps in Medford. Among the company’s fans are Dolly Parton, Joe Perry of Aerosmith, Paul Stanley of Kiss, and Carlos Santana. Eddie Carlino says that he makes about 40 guitars a year in the shop, which start at $3,500, some from a variety of African hardwood called Korina that he is involved with growing locally. Other guitars that he sells are made overseas from his designs.

If you’ve got a mariner on your list, and you’re feeling spendy, Ribcraft’s rigid inflatable boats (similar to the better-known Zodiac brand) are produced in Marblehead. Many of them are sold to the US Navy, as well as city and state law enforcement agencies. An open 16-foot boat with a 50-horsepower motor sells for about $46,000, and carries up to six people. Ribcraft has 45 employees.

I thought I’d include Crane Stationery in this run-down, because who doesn’t love a crisp sheet of monogrammed stationery? But that company closed its North Adams plant in 2020, and moved to New York (where it is still struggling). A sibling of the stationery maker is Crane Currency in Dalton; the two companies split in 2016. Crane Currency makes all of the paper for printed money in the US, and many other countries.

So if there’s someone on your gifting list who’s hard to peg, you could always put some cash in an envelope and say, “By the way, this gift was made in MA.”

Scott Kirsner can be reached at kirsner@pobox.com. Follow him @ScottKirsner.