Blue and Red Snow Globe, Sparkle Water Dome, Hallway Shake Decor, Colleague Keepsake Gift Idea

Sal has been at war with the squirrels for six winters. His bird feeder, a cedar house he built himself, hangs from a maple branch in the backyard, and every day at noon a gray squirrel named Clyde hangs upside down from it, eating Sal's sunflower seeds like a man at an all-you-can-eat buffet. Sal has tried baffles, hot pepper, a coiled spring and strongly worded notes. Clyde reads none of them. This Christmas, defeated, Sal brought the birds inside: a snow globe in powder blue, covered in plump bullfinches with rosy chests, red berries, pine sprigs and cream flowers.

He set it on the hallway table and shook it. Snow drifted over the birds. "No seeds," he told the dome. "No squirrels. Just peace." Then the doorbell rang. It was the neighbor, delivering a package, and behind her on the porch rail, in a stance of pure menace, sat Clyde. Sal and Clyde looked at each other through the glass of the front door. Clyde looked at the globe on the hallway table. Clyde, who has never wanted anything but seeds, appeared to realize he had been outflanked. He left. Sal ran back inside and shook the dome with both hands.

It was a temporary victory. By morning Clyde was back on the feeder. But the globe stayed on the hall table, a bright blue dome of birds that do not eat, do not scatter and never get robbed. It brings a little winter garden indoors, with berry reds and pine greens and a cheerful, quiet charm that every morning commuter notices on the way out. Sal still hates squirrels. But he now owns six very polite birds who are very good at their jobs: sitting in a dome, being admired and ignoring all attempts at theft.

Hallways, entry tables and any small shelf you pass a dozen times a day. A dome like this thrives where you catch it from the corner of your eye, because the red berries and little birds were made for glances. The powder blue keeps a shelf bright on gray mornings. It looks right on a console under a mirror, on a window ledge beside a bird book or on a desk that overlooks a feeder, where it can pretend to be one more regular. Shake it before you go out and again when you get back. The birds do not mind the commute.

Give it to the retired neighbor who keeps a notebook of every bird that visits the yard and calls the squirrel the villain. Give it to the colleague whose desk faces a window and who says oh, a nuthatch out loud. Give it to the friend who just bought a bird feeder and acquired a squirrel problem the same afternoon. Add a bag of seed as a joke, then a second bag, because the squirrels will notice. Wrap the globe in soft tissue. It is, after all, full of very small, very important birds.

• Size: 3.5" x 3.4"
• Durable polystyrene globe, lighter and more break-resistant than glass
• Two-sided acrylic insert shows the same design from either side
• Acrylic glitter and PET snow for a classic swirling effect
• Filled with purified water
• Care: wipe dust off gently with a soft, dry cloth
• AKA: blue and red snow globe, sparkle water dome, hallway shake decor, colleague keepsake gift idea