EDITOR'S NOTE

Meet the Makers is PULPs December gift guide, offering small-business solutions to your gift-buying needs—and the opportunity to support companies with underrepresented founders.

Disclosure: this article, and other Meet the Makers’ articles, may contain affiliate links. So even though I genuinely love these products, I want to be upfront that affiliations help us keep the lights on for our own small business with underrepresented founders.‍

t’s December, which means that for many of us, the time has come to begin ranking your loved ones into lists of “gets presents”, “gets a card”, and “gets _____ level of digital communication”*.

As you make your lists (and check them twice), why not do double duty? Why not put your money where your politics are, and support high-quality products from small businesses and get your friends and family some inarguably dope shit?

After all, you’re likely not traveling much this holiday season. What’re you going to do with your cash? Buy another pair of slipper socks on Instagram?**

First up on our weekly gift guide series is Half Day CBD, a Black-owned cannabis company that takes seriously the concept that you should feel good when you want to--and they don’t skimp on quality.

Their story: Half Day CBD was founded by Dave DiCosola and Kam Norwood, two friends inspired by the promise of CBD as a healthy answer to some of life’s most common stresses and ailments. Their products are designed to fine-tune your well-being all day, every day—an all-natural way to help with stress, sleep and inflammation. The Half Day team is driven to create the highest-quality, most trustworthy hemp-derived products so you can take a Half Day and enjoy a full life!

‍I’m passionate about supporting businesses whose work I believe in, and who I want to see more of in the industry they’re repping. That said, I’m also a former stoner who can’t smoke weed anymore, and so I’ve become extremely selective about my CBD products: I like potent, high-quality ingredients that are ethically sourced with transparency about their origins—and I’m a sucker for beautiful, detail-oriented marketing.

When my Half Day package arrived in the mail, I was really excited to find all of my products wrapped beautifully, like I’d been sent a box of goodies in a care package from a close friend. A friend who has similar political — and cannabis! — values to mine. 

Half Day boasts some pretty excellent best-sellers, including their Blissful Berry CBD Gummies, and their Full Spectrum CBD oil (about 1000mg), but truth be told, my favorites are the smokables. I love the Flower pre-rolls, especially the Magic Bullet (it helps that the name invokes a vibrator) because they leave me feeling relaxed, happy, and able to unwind after a long day of too many Zoom meetings.

I love being able to smoke something, to participate in smoking culture even as a person who doesn’t smoke weed anymore. There’s something that’s satisfying to me, on a routine level, about lighting up a pre-roll, especially when I don’t have to worry that I’m going to get high, anxious, and paranoid***.

There aren’t many places we can escape to, these days — not many places we can duck out of the ever-present reality that is whatever corner of our living spaces we’ve turned into a makeshift office during the pandemic. So in a time of increased stress due to uncertainty, existential anxiety, social isolation, and too many damn screens, I’m finding myself turning to the calming powers of CBD more and more as an opportunity to take care of myself. 

If you’re looking to offer the same sort of care to someone on your gift list, you really can’t go wrong with Half Day. And while you’re at it, get something for yourself, too. Even without a slew of terrible holiday parties to go to, planning is stressful!

*side note: has anyone else come to the realization that communication on social media doesn’t seem to hold as much weight as a text or phone call? As a person without Facebook, I experience a diminished amount of “Happy Birthday”, but the ones I do get feel somehow more intentional. But I’m in my mid-thirties and grew up without the Internet, so I admit to being a little old-school about all things social media. 

** no shade to slipper socks. I now own a pair for every outfit.

*** thanks, changing brain chemistry.