Made In Jamaica Means Something. This Heritage Week, Spend Like It.
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Editorial Team
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Today is the first day of National Heritage Week in Jamaica. It runs through October 19, Heroes Day, and every year it arrives with the same quiet challenge underneath all the ceremony: not just to remember who we are, but to decide what we are going to do about it.
The exhibitions open. The school programmes run. The speeches remind us that this island has punched above its weight in music, in sport, in culture, in every arena where sheer Jamaican determination has been given a chance to show itself. And all of that is worth celebrating. But there is a version of heritage that does not live in a museum or an auditorium. It lives in workshops and studios and small business operations across this island, where Jamaican people are making things right now, with their hands, rooted in this culture, for this market.
That heritage only survives if there is a market for it. It does not get preserved by declaration. It gets preserved by purchase. By Jamaicans deciding, deliberately, that what is made here is worth what it costs.
Heritage Is Not Only What We Inherit
We tend to think of heritage as the things already saved: the portraits on the wall, the songs from primary school, the artefacts behind glass. That backward-facing version of heritage is important. But it is not the whole picture. Living heritage is being made right now, in real time, by people who have chosen to build something rooted in who we are as Jamaicans. The question is whether we recognise it and support it while it is still being made, or whether we wait until it is gone and then mourn it.
Consider what a candle maker does when she names her products in patois, when she hand-pours every jar with a philosophy of intention behind the name on the label. She is not just making candles. She is making a statement about Jamaican identity and what it deserves. Consider what a master potter does when he presses the breadfruit, one of Jamaica’s most enduring symbols, into the side of a cup and fires it into permanence. He is not just making ceramics. He is archiving something. Consider what an artist does when she sculpts a figurine of a Jamaican child with such specificity that anyone from this island recognises the face before they have finished looking at it. She is saying: this moment is worth keeping.
None of that survives without a market. Without people who choose to look for it and buy it. Heritage Week is the right moment to make that choice.
The Campaign Behind the Brands
The B2B: Buy To Build: A Made In Jamaica Christmas campaign runs October 1 to December 31, 2026, on the Things Jamaican platform. It features four Jamaican brands, all making excellent products, all available right now. The campaign name says exactly what it means: every purchase is also an act of building. The economy that supports Jamaican makers. The creative sector with a market. The craft tradition with a future. This Heritage Week, these four brands deserve your attention.
Wicks by Grey
Wicks by Grey makes non-toxic soy candles and aromatherapy products that are, in the brand’s words, hand-poured with intention. That word, intention, is not marketing language here. It shows up in everything. The 9oz Confidence Candle ($28) is named for a quality, not a fragrance note. You give it to someone and the name carries the message without you having to explain a word. The Assorted Aromatherapy Bundle ($50, down from $60) is a curated set built on the idea that what you bring into your home should be chosen, not grabbed. The 8oz Ginger Cookie Candle ($30) is warm and spiced and exactly right for the season ahead. Every product Wicks by Grey makes was made by a Jamaican entrepreneur who thought carefully about what it should do and what it should mean. That is worth supporting.
Scents by St. Clair
Scents by St. Clair is home fragrance crafted in Kingston with a brand voice that is unapologetically, specifically Jamaican. Not Caribbean in a vague, tourist-facing way. Jamaican in the way that only makes full sense if you grew up here. The candles are named Hol’ A Medz ($22) and Skankin Sweet ($22). These names did not come from a marketing brief. They came from someone who lives here and is making something for people who feel the same. The Reed Diffuser ($40) fills a room without announcing itself. The Self Care Bundle ($85, down from $90) brings candles, wax melts, and more together for the person who deserves something genuinely good. This is Jamaican culture expressed through fragrance by someone who knows it from the inside.
Frazer’s Ceramics
Master potter Headley Frazer has spent decades developing a ceramic aesthetic that is unmistakably Caribbean. His pieces do not imitate anything. They originate. The Mini Vases (from $19) are handmade and individually distinct, the kind of object that earns a permanent spot in a home without demanding attention. The Large Breadfruit Design Cup ($32.84) carries one of Jamaica’s most enduring cultural symbols on its surface: a fruit that fed this island for centuries, pressed into clay and fired into permanence. The Coronation Market Set ($154) is three ceramic pieces that together reconstruct a scene of Jamaican market life with the warmth and specificity of someone who has actually lived it. These are not souvenirs. They are works of craft from a man who has devoted his life to one.
Frazer’s Ceramics – Large Breadfruit Design Cup Only
$32.84
Enjoy your favourite beverage with the Frazer’s Ceramics Large Breadfruit Design Cup. Featuring a distinctive tropical motif, this artistic ceramic cup brings Jamaican-inspired charm to coffee, tea and everyday drinkware collections. Cup only.
Depablo Art and Craft
Depablo Art and Craft makes handmade figurines rooted in Caribbean identity. The Suck Finger Pickney Figurine ($47) captures a precise, specific moment of Jamaican childhood joy: the uninhibited pleasure of something delicious, the kind of expression a child has before they learn to contain their delight. Anyone with a connection to this island will feel it the moment they see it. It makes people smile before they have finished processing what they are looking at. That immediate recognition is exactly what living heritage looks like. An artist decided this face, this moment, this very specific piece of Jamaican experience was worth making permanent. It was the right decision.
Depablo Art & Craft – Suck Finger Pickney Figurine (1pc)
$47.00
Suck Finger Pickney! The Depablo Art & Craft – Suck Finger Pickney Figurines captures a familiar childhood moment with warmth and humour. Handcrafted in Jamaica, this charming figurine celebrates Caribbean storytelling, cultural nostalgia, and the innocent quirks of youth. Carefully shaped and painted by skilled artisans, each piece reflects authentic Jamaican life, creativity, and heritage.…
Spend This Heritage Week With Intention
You do not need to reorganise your entire approach to shopping or make a grand gesture about Jamaican identity. You just need to make one decision: the next time you are looking for a gift, for something for your home, for something worth giving to someone you care about, look at what Jamaica is making before you look anywhere else.
Everything in the B2B campaign is available right now. The brands are ready. Heritage Week is the right occasion to find them.
Shop online at thingsjamaicanshopping.com or visit us in person at Norman Manley International Airport, Devon House, or 14 Camp Road, Kingston.
