Your Holiday Gift Guide to New York City Museum Shops, Plus Promo Codes 2014

Find the perfect gift for your favorite foodie, fashion plate, lover of art, or New Yorker in exile from the great gift ideas served up by New York City’s museum shops. (And see our guide to the shops themselves here.)

New York City Museum Shops and Stores Discount or Promo Codes

• Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum (online-only during renovations): Take advantage of the shop’s holiday discount, 20% off when you use code #HOL14 at checkout.

• The Met Store, 1000 Fifth Ave.: Buy one watch and get a second one for 50% off when you shop the Met Watch Collection. Buy one 2015 calendar and get another one for 25% off. Holiday cards are buy one, get one 50% off. See more special offers here.

• The New Museum Store, 235 Bowery: Thoughtlectuals enjoy 10% off with promo code TG10 (code does not apply to membership/gift card orders and selected limited editions), valid until December 31st, 2014.

For the Bibliophile

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1. American Museum of Natural History Shop

Masterworks of scientific illustration are a hidden treasure in the AMNH’s collections. Forty rare ocean images make up Opulent Oceans, the new third volume of the museum’s Natural Histories series. Ready-to-frame prints are included. $50.

2. MoMA Store

Disguised as a hardcover when closed, this battery-powered LED light opens up to provide just the right illumination for a favorite text. Lumio Book Lamp. $190.

3. The Met Store

What library feels complete without a set of Assyrian Palace Guard Bookends? These cast resin sculptures of “divine guardians” are miniature versions of the famous Met Museum originals. $125.

For the Art Lover

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1. The Met Store

Master timepieces: Met art watches feature iconic motifs on the face and bands. Shown here, Van Gogh Irises Watch. $60.

2. The Frick Collection Shop

The bird on this sweet little hand mirror was adapted from the Vase à Oreilles, produced by Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory around 1759 and purchased by Henry Clay Frick. $5.95.

3. The MoMA Store

Louise Bourgeois’s 2002 fabric scrapbook Ode à l’oubli inspires the motifs of this collection of four dishwasher-safe porcelain plates. Pictured, Red Dots Plate. $55.

For the New Yorker in Exile

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1. Shop at the Museum of the City of New York

New York care package: Zabar’s loads up a tote with black & white cookies, babka, rugelach, bagels, Fox’s U-Bet, and more. Just add the Sunday Times on Saturday night and they’ll be all set. $109.

The New Museum’s striking seven-story home was the first art museum ever constructed from the ground up downtown. Elevate someone’s dinner table with these 3D Printed Salt & Pepper Shakers in the shape of the landmark building. $95.

3. The Tenement Museum Gift Shop 

Keep New York in mind with this map-adorned retro zip-topped travel pouch, sized just right  for beauty essentials and an iPad Mini. $24.99.

For the Foodie

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1. Whitney Museum Shop 

It’s hard to get more local than this: real Manhattan honey. Produced on the roof of the Whitney, this is the last of the uptown harvest—future jars will taste of the Meatpacking. The lovely label is by artist Kiki Smith. $19.

2.  The Store at the Museum of Arts and Design

Meals will be that much more inspired when they’re sliced and diced on these Danish-modern-style cutting boards, crafted from solid wood. Available in walnut in red, orange, or lime-green trim. Small, $42, large $68.

3. The Shop at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Class up your morning joe with this Mansion Mug, marrying Cooper Hewitt’s elaborate 19th century home with a crisp, all-emoticon graphic portrait. $15.

For the Fashion Plate

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1. The New Museum Store 

Your loved ones will look forward to the rain when they have this New Museum umbrella to protect them. The signature mesh “exoskeleton” of the museum’s home provides a stylish pattern for a surface of repurposed bottles. $38.

2. Guggenheim Store 

Brass and sterling work together on these elegant “Imperial Hotel” earrings, by the architecture-inspired jeweler Pico. $100.

3. Transit Museum Store

Celebrating Grand Central’s centennial, this smart T reflects the night sky as seen on the ceiling of everyone’s favorite terminal. 100% cotton. $22.

For the Little Ones

For Future Engineers

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1. Brooklyn Museum Shop

Cultivate the future urban planner in your life with a hand-painted set of Blockitecture. Wooden blocks nest in a variety of combinations, ready to evolve as quickly as New York City. $25.

2. New-York Historical Society Museum & Library Store

Add the latest addition to the New York skyline to someone’s collection. Easy to follow instructions help this laser-etched Metal Marvel One World Trade Center Replica rise considerably quicker than its downtown inspiration. $7.95.

3. American Folk Art Museum Shop

In the rustic spirit of folk art, no two of these Voice Recorders are alike. Little hands can experiment with speed and pitch as they work up half-minute recordings. $54.

For Vintage Kids

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1. The MoMA Store

There’s no reason a dollhouse can’t reflect impeccable taste. Help a little friend kit out a miniature world of mid-century modern design with the nesting boxes of the MoMA Modern Play House. $19.99.

2. The Shop at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Colorforms went from accidental discovery in a Manhattan apartment to the Toy Hall of Fame. This reissue of the Original Colorforms Set is a throwback classic, complete with 350 vinyl decals. $35.

3. American Folk Art Museum Shop

No bleeps, blurps or video screens needed here. These Classic ABC Blocks provide learning the old-fashioned, tactile way, with 28 cubes made of quality Michigan basswood. $36.

For Aspiring Artists

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1. The New Museum Store

Little photographers can take extra pride in their shots because they’ll be building this camera themselves. The Bigshot DIY Digital Camera Kit produces a versatile device, with capacity for regular, panoramic or 3D snaps. $125.

2. The Met Store

Rising art stars can carve out space at the coffee shop and scene-sketch all day long with this art-on-the-go set. The Do Art Travel Easel comes packed with chalkboard, white board, pastels, markers, chalk, colored pencils and a drawing pad. $34.95.

3. American Folk Art Museum Shop

Take inspiration from artist Jenny Holzer’s LED installations with this Free Form Magnatab. The littlest of hands can manipulate the stylus and bead board to let imaginative shapes take form. $24.

For Wee New Yorkers

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1. Shop at the Museum of the City of New York

Bring the skyline to life with this 4D New York Cityscape Puzzle, which nestles together 120 NYC building icons. The fourth “D”? That would be time, as the structures span from 1812 to One World Trade. $45.

2. The Store at the Museum of Arts and Design 

No New York skyline is complete without water towers. Recycled cardboard in this Brooklyn Water Tower Model Kit comes together quickly to make a worthy miniature of this Gotham icon. $22.95.

3. Children’s Museum of Manhattan Store

Convey a life lesson about the virtues of patience as you wait for this G train to roll on through. It’s part of a set of MTA-licensed wooden subway cars that will have the house ringing with calls of “step in, stand clear.” $11.

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