Step away from the Chia Pets. Put down those Starbucks gift cards. Shopping for Christmas gifts need not be soul-crushing. We've just learned that Alpha Workshops has set the date for its annual one-day "Alphaware" studio sale in New York City. Starting at 1pm on Monday, December 17th, you'll have seven hours to shop for unique gifts created by the artisans of the Alpha Workshops, the non-profit organization that trains and employs people living with HIV/AIDS in the decorative arts (245 West 29th Street, Floor 12A). If past years are any guide, expect everything from the comfortingly conventional to the memorably ridiculous. Flying off the studio's shelves last year were little handmade boxes topped with stuffed birds.

Shelter magazine readers will be familiar with Alpha's offerings (including such products as hand-blocked wallpaper and lamps), which have garnered editorial coverage from the likes of Interior Design and Metropolis. Famed interior designer (and frequent client) Samuel Botero has touted their work in the pages of Architectural Digest, and several Alpha designs have made it into the permanent collection of the Cooper-Hewitt. The look of Alpha Workshops, however, is hard to pin down. It is whimsical maximalism at its best. "We're bound by an illness, not an aesthetic," Alpha founder Ken Wampler told us recently. "One of our board members once described us as 'fresh.' And I think he said that because we didn't come together around a similar aesthetic -- that just didn't exist."