The December Specials
The "festive things I saw from my sofa" edition
Welcome to December’s Specials, a list of things I’ve been collecting all month to share with you. I was home sick for the better part of the last two weeks (I’m better now!) so although I missed a bunch of fun holiday parties and celebratory dinners I was looking forward to, I had a chance to consume a truly impressive amount of digital content, making it the perfect time for one of these round ups.
One of the things I love about the holiday season is that it forces everyone to really lean into a theme, one that requires a certain amount of delusional enthusiasm. We’re adding peppermint to foods that would otherwise never benefit from such a flavor. We’re baking cookies vaguely shaped like bald people, then decorating them with sprinkles. We’re singing along to songs that use words like “jolly” and “jingle” without second thought.
It’s unserious and over the top and I love it. So if ever there was a time for me to be laid up on the sofa, mere inches from my tree covered in ornaments mostly shaped like food, watching movies about small hometowns and big city people who discover the magic within them, this is it. No festivity lost here.
This month’s Specials:
JASMINE DOWLING’S GIFT WRAPPING GENIUS
Artist Jasmine Dowling has been sharing creative gift wrap ideas to her Instagram over the last few weeks and I love what she’s come up with: Khaite-esque rhinestone studs, interwoven velvet ribbons, gift toppers inspired by bag charms, dust bags reimagined… It’s all so clever. And (mostly) easy!
AN OPERA COAT THAT MADE ME EMOTIONAL
I think it’s wildly unfair that this 1960s beaded silk opera coat from Persephone Vintage is not mine. If anyone finds anything remotely similar to this out there, you are required by law to show me first.
LUKE EDWARD HALL’S DRINKS MENU
Renaissance man Luke Edward Hall hosted a holiday party earlier this month and hand painted this drinks menu for the bar. It’s perfect.
DALÍ IN A LEOPARD COAT
That is all.
RICHARD E. GRANT’S MAGICAL HOME
House & Garden visited actor Richard E. Grant’s Richmond home and it’s a bit of a holiday spectacular. Grant and his late wife Joan were collectors of antiques, art, and souvenirs from their life together, and at Christmastime it all really comes alive. Also, there’s a large bust of Barbra Streisand in his garden.
ANDREA SHAM’S PIERROT-INSPIRED PASTRY
I can’t get over Parisian pastry chef Andrea Sham’s little stacks of chou filled with sweet clover cream, each complete with Pierrot-esque ruffles.
CHRISTMAS TREE LANE IN ALTADENA
For over 100 years, local volunteers in my neighborhood have assembled each holiday season to hang tens of thousands of lights on a long cedar-lined street called Christmas Tree Lane. Ever since I moved to the area, driving down the lane with a hot bev in hand has become one of my favorite traditions. However, if anyone from the Christmas Tree Lane Association is reading this, I’d like to gently suggest we bail on the current primary-heavy color scheme for some big vintagey rainbow ones… I hear Tru-Tone Bulbs have that incandescent look.
THE KOSHER MENORAH GAME
I thoroughly enjoyed watching this Tiktok about what makes a menorah kosher. I had no idea! The Hots4Pots macaroni menorah? Not kosher. The Susan Alexandra martini menorah? Kosher! The pretty fish menorah I shared the other week? Not kosher. This dinosaur menorah? Kosher!
SKATES SKATING TO “SKATING”
This is AI… right?
A LAST MINUTE GIFT
Running out of time and need a gift for the aesthete in your life? Send them a one year subscription to this very newsletter! Click here to purchase, schedule when you want the gift to deliver to their inbox, then shoot me an email at hello@alilabelle.co with your name and theirs before Monday 12/23 at noon PT. I’ll send you back a customized printable card that you can wrap and gift them in person.
Stay healthy, everyone. And have a happy holidays! See you on the other side.
x
Ali
omg PLEASE creative direct Christmas Tree Lane
I want all of my pastries to look like Pierrot. 😭😭😭😭