The grinch whizzed down Mt. Crumpit with a sleigh full of gifts for the Whos, but I prefer this little car.
If I were in charge of buying my own gifts, without a spending limit, anything here would be perfect. Although frankly, as alluring as all these things are, I’d be happy with a bag of Chicken Bones (see below.)
Our new apartment comes with a rather complicated electric fireplace insert that I am shamefully afraid to switch on.
While I work up the courage to dive into the byzantine instruction manual, I will instead ask Santa for this extra large, multi-wicked Diptyque Feu de Bois Candle ($297, Holt Renfrew) with its incredibly evocative, room-filling wood fire scent and its beautiful greige ceramic vessel.
It’s quite sad how badly I dress. I don’t care nearly enough, and more often than not, I will look down and see that I’m wearing terrible jeans and an ancient, lint-flecked sweater. So I try to carry a nice bag and wear my late mother’s jewelry to distract from the untidiness of my hair, the weird fit of my Nordstrom Rack jeans.
A Sidney Garber Scribble scribble ring ($10,900 US sidneygarber.com) with its six conjoined sparkly bands is the perfect attention-getting diversion. It would stand out beautifully against a plain black sweater with black trousers and some glossy lug-soled chunky loafers, and no other jewelry. I could manage that, I think.
The evil geniuses at Chanel have turned the greatest vetiver fragrance ever (and my favourite, as I wrote about here) Les Exclusifs de Chanel Sycomore, into a lush Body Oil, ($140, Chanel.com.) A little different from the perfume (I swear the forward-facing vanilla and cedar give it more of a ‘skin scent’ quality) it’s still a smoky, vegetal and earthy declaration of vetiver elegance for the world.
With jojoba and meadowfoam seed oil, it’s a dry oil that sinks right in, leaving you smelling like perfume royalty. This kind of extravagance doesn’t come cheap, but it’ll turn your morning and evening skincare into a heady paradise every time.
A casually draped sheepskin is a clever solution if the cat has clawed an arm rest, or shredded an ottoman. And you can get a perfectly credible, if rather smallish, one, at IKEA any day of the week.
But for a real splash, I would love a curly, smoke-grey Gotland sheepskin, ($553, blacksheepwhitelight.com) from Canadian online retailer Black Sheep White Light. And here’s a rationalization for you: it’s cheaper than paying for reupholstery.
Ganong Chicken Bones are a Canadian east coast Christmas candy dating back to 1885, even though they seem faintly Mexican in origin, given their singular mix of cinnamon candy with a chocolate filling. Hard to come by, but worth hunting down here in Ontario, I had to order mine online this year, but luckily Sobey’s carries them, $7, Voila.ca. (As does Amazon.)