Fill stockings for a childlike Christmas experience.
Who runs the world? Overtaxed, exhausted women, that’s who.
All my female friends are wrung out right now: planning Christmas, worrying about elderly relatives, and still having to work and sit through endless Zoom meetings under less-than-optimal lighting.
Not as chic as a my all-white main image, but Dollarama still delivers.
This year I’m giving them the beauty version of childhood Christmas stockings: bulging and filled with lots of little things: wee jars of cream, small tubes of hand lotion, face cream, and mini candles. I have amassed a collection of those beauty gift boxes that are so thick on the ground this time of year, all to be divided up and their component parts packed into (admittedly scratchy) red ‘velvet’ Christmas stockings from Dollarama (my love for Dollarama is boundless and well-documented.) I’m even planning to individually wrap every last, silly little item and seal it well with scotch tape just to prolong the whole unwrapping process.
Oh and weed gummies. I’m going to buy weed gummies, because I think my friends could really use them.
Quo beauty’s gleaming Cosmetic Christmas crackers, Shoppers Drug Mart, come six to a pack for only $15, each containing a wee lip gloss.
It is an indisputable fact that Nest makes the best Christmas candles. Their Holiday Set, $90, Sephora, is two of their most popular scents - Holiday and Birchwood Pine - in festive gilt trimmed vessels.
Caudalie’s hand cream trio, $24, is a happy collision of Shea butter, antioxidants and polyphenols with the singular sophisticated fragrancing of Caudalie perfumes Thé des Vignes and Rose des Vignes.
You know that friend who adds Trader Joe’s Everything But the Bagel spice to literally everything? I love resinous (and much more refined than patchouli) vetiver and want to add vetiver to every scented item I have, so I am bossily giving Monsillage’s beautiful Vétiver soap, $12, in the hopes of converting all my friends. Available from Montreal’s Etiket boutique, Canada’s most idiosyncratic and well-stocked beauty store.
Tucking a Softlips slims lip Hydrating Lip Balm ($4.99 for a package of three at Walmart) into a stocking is a very Mom thing to do. The peppermint ones look festive in their candy cane striped suits (there’s even a bonus cherry in the pack) and each has spf 20 because worrying about your friends’ sun exposure is even more peak-mom.
Biossance Your Clean Routine Overachievers set ($77, Sephora) skincare contains the brand’s bestsellers for glowing skin, all built on a base of their hero ingredient, sugar-cane derived, cruelty-free squalane.
The annual L’Occitane advent calendar, $84, is always a delight - bath gels, creams, their famous Shea butter hand protectors, bar soap in the shape of a leaf. You can buy the calendar to give to someone whole or just get one and tear it apart. Maybe it will be on sale by now given that we are well into advent?
What genius created watermelon THC gummies? (ChowieWowie’s watermelon gummies come four to a pack but your seasonally stressed friends should only take one at a time.)
According to Canadian Canabis firm FIGR, Canadians prefer to receive edibles by a wide margin (49%) over the kind you smoke. And my friends are all well above the age of consent and in need of some chilling out, so THC it is.
When all this is over we will want to return to our favourite cafés to sit and nurse a macchiato (or a dry white, which is all foam and no actual liquid milk and is apparently the latest thing.) Supporting your friend’s favourite locals will help keep the cash flow flowing.
Montreal’s Dispatch Coffee describes their offerings in highly detailed foodie/perfumer language so you can easily pick the right bean. They sell single bags, gift subscriptions and all the necessary tools a coffee addict could possible need.
Beloved Korean brand Belif’s Glowy Holidays kit, Sephora, contains different iterations of their famous Aqua Bomb super hydrators all in their signature, adorable top hat jars, as well as a hydrating essence, all for only $30.