Art, music, flowers, food and feet: Great holiday gifts for around $25

An afternoon of rare art

The “Plains Indians Artists of Earth and Sky” exhibit is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see more than 135 rare masterworks of Plains Indian art in one place.

That would be at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 4525 Oak St., where the exhibit continues through Jan. 11 before moving to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. This show has everything: gorgeous beadwork, painted buffalo robes, feathered headdresses and amazing contemporary art.

Two adult tickets cost $24 (the cost is $10 apiece for seniors and $6 for students). Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday; 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday and Friday. For tickets and more information, call 816-751-1278 or go to nelson-atkins.org.

Symphony concert

The Kansas City Symphony’s “Classics Uncorked” series is one of the best live performance deals around — $25 (plus a $6 ticket fee) buys an hour and a half of musical bliss in the Kauffman Center’s Helzberg Hall and a glass of wine or champagne afterward in the lobby.

If you’re giving a few gifts early, the series features a 7 p.m. Dec. 10 program, “Waltzing in a Winter Wonderland,” including holiday favorites like Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s “Waltz of the Flowers” and Giuseppe Torelli’s “Christmas Concerto.”

For a post-holiday treat, give a ticket to “Bach to the Future,” a program of Johann Sebastian Bach and music he inspired on Feb. 26. Call 816-471-0400 or visit www.kcsymphony.org for tickets and more concert choices.

Bouquet in the making

What could be more cheerful than flowers in January? Kansas City’s Soil Service Garden Center, 7130 Troost Ave., has barrels of paperwhite narcissus bulbs — both the heavily scented “Ziva” variety and the less fragrant “Inball” type — ready for forcing.

There are always paperwhite kits around, but why not personalize your gift with a beautiful German-made Scheurich pot? An 8-inch pot costs $15 and will hold five bulbs at $1.50 apiece. Soil Service has little packets of activated charcoal for $1.50, and bags of small stones for $1.99, bringing your total expenditure to about $26 before tax.

Prepare the pot by putting a thin layer of charcoal in the bottom and adding 2 inches of stones on top of that; then nestle the bulbs into the stones. Tell the recipient to add water up to the bottom of the bulb, and when the green tips start to grow, to add a thimbleful of vodka or gin to keep the stalks from getting floppy and leggy. About three weeks later, the flowers will be in full bloom.

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Foot massage

The back and shoulders are the common targets of massage treatments, but at Imperial Foot Care, 4120 Pennsylvania, the focus is your feet. The Chinese-run spa practices reflexology, a method of applying gentle pressure to the feet and other parts of the body.

There’s no need to undress — clients get comfortable on roomy recliners installed side-by-side in a darkened room, where the first order of business is removing your socks and immersing your feet in a bucket of warm water. A one-hour foot and body acupressure session costs $28 cash ($30 for credit); a 30-minute foot session runs $15 cash ($18 credit). Walk in or call ahead, 816-216-1702. To learn more or make an appointment online, go to www.imperialfootcare.com/.

Ikea food basket

Move over, Smucker’s! Ikea’s Sylt Jordgubb (strawberry jam) is the new favorite at our house, where it shares the pantry shelf with Sylt Lingon (lingonberry) and Sylt Krusbar (gooseberry). That’s $12 for 43 ounces of preserves.

For gift-giving, continue the berry theme with a bag of Choklad Lingon and Blabar (individually wrapped squares of chocolate flavored with lingonberries and blueberries) for $4.99. Throw in a packet of Pepparkaka (ginger thins) for $2.49 and a package of Knackebrod (crispbread) — $2.99 — and you’ve got quite a nice basket of treats for under $25.

For your adventurous — or Swedish — friends, trade out one of the preserves for some $3.99 Sill Sommar (marinated herring with rhubarb and lemon flavor) to enjoy with the crispbread. 6000 Ikea Way, Merriam (Interstate 35 at Johnson Drive)

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Read more here: Kansascity.com