Just a bunch of gorgeous things for Christmas
Welcome to your second Christmas gift guide of the season. The other one was all booze, this is just gorgeous things. Lots of gorgeous things. All of Lapland is a-buzz!
The Mandrake
You’ve been to The Mandrake. Yes, you have. You came to the Jake Summer Party. Then last year’s Christmas Party (remember parties?) And you loved it. So much so that you’re now thinking of treating someone to a voucher that will entitle them to a range of multi-sensory wellbeing experiences, anything from gong baths to crystal bowl sound meditation. You know it makes sense!
From £40, themandrake.com
Penhaligon’s Halfeti Holiday Collection
We have it on the very best authority that Prince Charles wears Penhaligon’s Blenheim Bouquet, which means, when it comes to giftage, you’d be safe sending him some of this. The inspiration is Turkish, with exotic florals, spices, soft leathers, precious fabrics - basically the inside of Prince Charles’s armoire - and it comes in a cute little hatbox-type thing that will be used for love letters and keepsakes (not necessarily just between you and Prince Charles) for years to come.
£194, 16-17 Burlington Arcade, Mayfair, London W1
Naim Mu-so for Bentley special edition speaker system
Shall we just Bentley and leave it there? No, you need more? Basically, it’s the last word in speakers, whether they be stand-alone or multi-room. Expect the very latest in streaming technology, dark good looks and the ability to not only activate your music collection but upgrade your TV audio into the bargain. Sleek, sexy, masculine (again, we just could have said Bentley) and the perfect gift to oneself this season. Oh my god, you shouldn’t have!
£1799, shop.bentleymotors.com
Zoom that Room
If one of your New Year’s Resolutions is sorting out that front room of yours but you’re still not quite sure what you want to do with it... how about a one-hour online consultation with top interiors expert Benji Lewis? Choose the video conferencing platform you prefer and Benji will talk you through your options, harnessing his design skills to transform your spaces into something you can be proud of. Basically, it’s a fresh pair of eyes (talented, highly skilled and not unattractive eyes at that) that could be the best money you spend in your quest for the perfect home.
£90 for an hour, zoomthatroom.com
ROJA Essence of Christmas candle
Black and gold with a picture of Santa lashing those lazy-bottom reindeer, this luxury Christmas candle couldn’t be more festive if... well, it just couldn’t be more festive. Full stop. With a limited run of just 1,000 (so get there before Elton John!), the notes (top, bottom and versatile) are heliotrope, cinnamon, votives, cedar wood, pine... you know, wintery things. Oh and frankincense. And it don’t come no Christmassier than frankincense.
£95, 51 Burlington Arcade, Mayfair, London W1
Areaware whisky stones
We love rocks. In our whisky, we mean. Your mind! Seriously! But the problem with rocks is they don’t stay rocks for long, which means your whisky - if you don’t guzzle it quickly enough! - gets watered down. It’s been a problem unsolved since time immemorial. Until now. Thanks to these little things, which may look like modern art - they may even be modern art! - you can keep your whisky chilled and clinkin’ without any of the dilution issues you’d have with your actual ice. And they still can’t put a man on the moon.
£44, goodhood.com
Primephonic
Whether you know your stuff when it comes to classical music or you would like to know your stuff, this ultimate streaming service for classical music lovers has to be right up your street. Not only is the sound high-resolution (it gets a bit technical here, but you can look into that) but you get to discover some hidden gems and learn how to impress thanks to in-depth podcasts with the experts. If they can now do one based on disco and the work of Joni Mitchell, we’re all set. Can we put this on our Christmas list?
£44.99 for three months, primephonic.com
Ferm Living ripple champagne saucers
They can be spilly, that’s all we’re saying. Sparkles that come in a saucer rather than in a flute (you do realise we’re talking about glasses here, don’t you? Oh, there’s a picture) are scientifically more delicious than other sparkles. Even Marie Antoinette knew that and she wasn’t top of the class in much, that one. Anyway, if you wanted to add a bit of contemporary masculinity to your bubbles glasses, you could do a lot worse than these beautifully rippled, square-cut babies from the leaders in Scandi design loveliness. It’s actually made us thirsty writing that!
£35, goodhoodstore.com
AKT
If there is a lovelier deodorant on planet earth, then we will eat our old deodorant stick (and don’t think we’ve not been reduced to sucking it when we’ve got through every other drop of alcohol in the house!) Seriously delicious when it comes to fragrance (we really are HUGE fans of this stuff), it’s all natural, plastic-free, vegan from its head to its toes and created by two former West End turns - because if anyone knows breaking a sweat… And you don’t even have to take our word for it: AKT is basically the best-reviewed deodorant in the history of de-stinking products. And it looks super cool in its little tube and travels like a dream. We wouldn’t be without it. FACT.
Winter Nights by Byredo
You came to our champagne-lubricated, very VIP shopping nights at Byredo’s flagship store in Soho, right? (If you didn’t, you’re silly to yourself.) Gorgeous fragrances, handsome company, food, booze, even more booze, goodie bags, scintillating conversation, more booze… you catch our very nice drift. And for Christmas, our favourite Swedish perfumers (they also do sunglasses, candles and other gorgeous nick-nacks) have launched their Winter Nights scents; extraits de parfum (like perfume, only a hell of a lot fancier) coming in delicious Tobacco Mandarin, Casablanca Lily, Reine de Nuit and Night Veils. And just look at those bottles! Your bathroom won’t know what hit it. Or bedroom. Or walk-in wardrobe. We don’t mind where you fluff. If we were being greedy we’d have all four.
£235 for 50ml
40 Lexington Street, Soho, W1
byredo.com
FOOD (GLORIOUS FOOD)
Pasta Evangelists
Pasta at Christmas? Of course! Especially when it’s this delicious. And when they say ‘evangelists’, they’re not joking, seeing as they’re on a major mission to bring the very best in pasta to our shores through the medium of Christmas gifting. From DIY pasta-making kits through masterclasses, gift cards and delivery subscriptions, you can start working on your pasta bottoms from now. The perfect gift for the gourmand in your life/house/bed.
Various prices, pastaevangelists.com
allplants Vegan Christmas Feast
Have a cruelty-free Christmas (no, we’re not suggesting you take a year off from being rude about your sister-in-law: she has it coming) with this plant-based Feast Box that includes pretty much everything you need for a fabulous Christmas dinner without the screaming of any lambs. Walnut and cranberry loaf, cranberry sauce, crispy roast potatoes, spiced red cabbage being just some of the highlights. And they even donate £5 from every order to Choose Love, who provide essentials to refugees across the world. If you weren’t on Santa’s ‘Nice’ list before you ordered this, you’re at the top of it now.
£49.99, allplants.com
Evok Yulelogs
You may have heard of Evok, the group of slinky/sexy/chic Parisian hotels that includes le hot hotel du moment, Sinner. No? You need to get more reading done. Anyway, the head chef of that group, one Yann Brys, has designed a collection of five festive Yule logs (so much smarter than Christmas cake, don’t you think?) inspired by Christmas trees and wintry forests and... well, you get the picture. Where can you, a humble England-dweller get your hands (and eventually chops) on such swish offerings, you ask? Online, silly!
95 Euros each, order 48 hours in advance
Berner’s Tavern Gift Vouchers
You know Berner’s Tavern. In the London EDITION in Berner’s Street? We did our Jake Christmas Party in the basement a couple of years back? You don’t remember? Well, you had drunk quite a bit. Anyway, upstairs the restaurant is perhaps the most glamorous in the whole of the West End with its huge walls of pictures and its salon buzz. What better way to treat someone to a nice night/morning out? We can’t think of one off the tops of our heads. And you don’t even have to go with them thanks to newly-launched gift vouchers for breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner, Sunday roast, you name it. This one’s on us. Put your purse away.
From £50, bernerstavern.com
Hotel de Crillon
When it comes to fancy, no one out-fancies the famous Hotel de Crillon in Paris. No one, you hear. Personne! And now you’re reassured/intimidated by that knowledge, let us introduce you to their Head Pastry Chef, Matthieu Carlin (‘oh, bonjour!’) whose Yule logs are the talk of le tout Paris. And have been for quite some while. This year, the festive log has been inspired by the tales of Charles Perrault (a sort of French Brothers Grimm), which means extra fairytale magic for the Enchanted Black Forest Yule Log. We are officially enchanted.
80 Euros. Order at crillon.restauration@rosewoodhotels.com