The holidays have a way of making us want to send a little of West Virginia along in the box: a song, a story, a mug that was actually made here, or a blanket in old gold and navy. This is not a ranked list, and it is not a claim that these are the only gifts worth giving. It is a handful of ideas we looked up and liked for people who love this state, whether they still live here or just miss the hills.
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John Denver's Greatest Hits
If one song can still make a room full of West Virginians go quiet, it is "Take Me Home, Country Roads." John Denver did not grow up here, but that opening line about almost heaven has been ours for more than 50 years. This is the familiar Greatest Hits collection that leads with it, alongside "Rocky Mountain High," "Sunshine on My Shoulders" and "Leaving, On a Jet Plane."
It is an easy gift for a parent, a new graduate heading out of state, or anyone who still turns the volume up when the fiddle line comes in. This listing is the 2005 Sony Legacy CD edition of the classic album, with the original cover art.
A Fiesta Mug, Made in Newell
Not every gift that feels like West Virginia is actually made here. This one is. The Fiesta Tableware Company still turns out its colorful dinnerware in Newell, along the Ohio River in Hancock County, where the company has been making pottery since 1871. Fiesta itself has been part of American tables since 1936, and the pieces are still produced in that same river town.
This is the classic 10 1/4-ounce coffee mug in cobalt, with the ring handle folks recognize from a mile away. It is a useful, everyday present that also happens to support a West Virginia factory. The company makes the mugs in plenty of other colors if cobalt is not the one.
Rocket Boys, by Homer Hickam
Homer Hickam grew up in Coalwood, a McDowell County mining town, and this memoir is the story of how he and his friends started building rockets after Sputnik crossed the Appalachian sky in 1957. It later became the film "October Sky," an anagram of the book's title, and it remains one of the most widely read West Virginia coming-of-age stories we have.
This Delta paperback reprint is a good one to wrap for a student, a teacher, or anyone who likes a true story about stubborn kids, hard towns and the hope of getting off the ground. Hickam went on to work as a NASA engineer, which only makes the Coalwood chapters hit harder.
Hiking West Virginia, by Mary Reed
If your gift list includes someone who already has a pair of broken-in boots by the door, a statewide trail guide is more useful than another pair of socks. This Falcon Guides book, now in its third edition, walks through 50 hiking trails across West Virginia, with maps, mile-by-mile descriptions, backpacking notes and a bit of natural history along the way.
Mary Reed covers the kind of ground people actually ask about: river gorges, ridge lines and state parks from one end of the state to the other. It will not replace a day on the trail, but it can help someone plan the next one.
An Officially Licensed WVU Fleece Blanket
For the Mountaineer in your life, it helps to stick with officially licensed gear so the Flying WV looks the way it is supposed to. This Northwest 64-by-86-inch fleece blanket is an officially licensed West Virginia Mountaineers product, with the gold logo on navy and a couple of gold-and-white stripes at the corners.
It is big enough for a couch, a dorm room or a chilly November game. We are pointing to this specific blanket because the listing identifies it as officially licensed, not because it is the only good WVU gift out there.
Officially Licensed Marshall Thundering Herd Mugs
Herd fans deserve the same care. This officially licensed Boelter Brands set includes two 15-ounce ceramic Burst mugs, one with the Marshall helmet and one with the bison and the block M. The colors are the right green and white, and the listing identifies the set as officially licensed NCAA merchandise.
A two-pack is handy for a household that bleeds Kelly green, or for a pair of friends who still argue about Saturdays in Huntington. Wash and use them; they are meant for the morning coffee, not the display case.
The West Virginia Pepperoni Roll, by Candace Nelson
The pepperoni roll is as West Virginia as it gets: a soft bun wrapped around sticks of pepperoni, born in the Fairmont area and carried in lunch pails, ballgame bags and glove compartments ever since. This West Virginia University Press book by Candace Nelson, with a foreword by folklorist Emily Hilliard, is part history and part kitchen companion, with recipes, photographs and the stories of the bakeries that made the roll a state icon.
It is a better gift than trying to mail a dozen rolls across the country and hope they arrive the way they left the shop. Give the book, then make a batch together.
The Devil Is Here in These Hills, by James Green
For the reader who wants history with some weight to it, labor historian James Green's book follows West Virginia coal miners through decades of organizing, resistance and the mine wars that shaped this state. It is a serious, carefully reported account of the fight for a union and a measure of freedom in the southern coalfields, and it later served as the basis for the PBS American Experience film "The Mine Wars."
This is the paperback edition from Atlantic Monthly Press. It is not a light holiday read, and that is the point. Some families will recognize their own people in these pages.
The Mothman Prophecies, by John A. Keel
Point Pleasant's most famous visitor is now on a U.S. postage stamp, a downtown statue and, pretty soon, plenty of holiday lists. John A. Keel's The Mothman Prophecies is the book that carried those 1966 and 1967 reports far beyond the Ohio River. Keel, a journalist, came to town to look into the sightings and came away with a strange, unsettling account that later inspired a film of the same name.
Whether you treat it as folklore, investigation or a campfire story, it is the essential Mothman book. This listing is the Tor Books mass-market edition with the familiar cover. It is a fun wrap for the relative who already owns a cryptid T-shirt and wants the story behind it.
A West Virginia State Flag
Sometimes the most straightforward gift is the one that says, without a lot of explanation, "this is home." Annin Flagmakers, a long-established American flag company, makes this 3-by-5-foot West Virginia flag to official state design specifications. The coat of arms is there, farmer and miner, rhododendron and the motto Montani Semper Liberi, on the white field with a blue border.
It is a U.S.-made flag, not a West Virginia-made souvenir, and we are choosing Annin's official-specification version over cheaper lookalikes for that reason. Hang it on a porch, in a shop or in a dorm room far from the mountains.
If none of these is quite right, think about what the person already loves about West Virginia and start there: a trail they talk about, a team they yell for, a story they tell at the table. The best gifts from this state are usually the ones that feel like home when the wrapping comes off.