How to Actually Give Great Gifts This Holiday Season
Plus where I love to shop small.
I consider gift giving a competitive sport. I can hear it now, the crinkle-crinkle of a friend unwrapping a gift, the excitement… oh, the anticipation! Getting to feel my favorite emotion, as has been heavily documented on this newsletter, smugness, knowing that I Did Good. (Yes! I’ve been to therapy! Yes! I am an Eldest Daughter!) The point is, I know how to give a good gift. Really, it’s broken down into a couple sacred, yet simple tenants. One, don’t knock the obvious gifts. They’re go-tos for a reason. Your candles, your socks, booze, etc. People try to reinvent the wheel when it comes to gifts, but WHO doesn’t love a good pair of warm ‘n fuzzies or for their house to smell like Tahitian Vanilla? Some of my most valiant gift-giving moments have come from Le Basics.
A beautiful friend of mine was celebrating her birthday and due any day so I went to one of my favorite candle shops, Candle Delirium (finally, a place for us delulus) and got her an Olive & Thyme scented candle… because drumroll please, she’d picked out the name “Oliver” for her son. S’cute!
Another brilliant friend gave me cozy socks and a clementine-shaped candle for my birthday one year, so I in turn gave her cozy socks and vegetable-shaped soap for her birthday and now it’s our “thing!”
My second tip is to be thoughtful. Not like, la di da, here’s this expensive-ass thing, or “I assumed XYZ about you, ta-da!” Avoid that. I’m talking, if you see something and it reminds you of your friend, get it. Even if it’s not their birthday, or a holiday coming up. Then you’ve got a gift on standby and don’t have to do the last-minute Supermarket Sweep through Target. Do this for thank you cards and birthday cards, too. If you see a good one, just get it!
Here’s another real life example from the Gifting Hall of Fame. One time I was in Out of the Closet, a real gem of a place for tchotchkes and giftables TBH, and saw a vintage Cynthia Rowley cocktail shaker that twisted to reveal recipes and measurements for cocktails. Swiped! It ended up getting paired with a bottle of gin whose brand bore the name of the birthday boy. (Who then ended up getting me a beautiful basket of goods to make pasta puttanesca for my birthday!)
Same old same old candles and booze can be elevated in other thoughtful ways. As an engagement gift, I gave a friend wine from the region in Italy she got engaged in, and a candle that smelled like the Italian coast! Cin, cin! You can even go the cheap-y/zany route if it’s *thoughtful*. For a friend temporarily moving to Paris for the summer I got what else? Red lipstick, cigarettes, and Lactaid.
Now that I have regaled you with tales of my gift-giving prowess I present to you four small businesses that I love that you should support this holiday season. Pygmy Hippo is a blink-and-miss-it teeny gift shop in the Beverly Grove area that stocks vintage ephemera, books, zines, clothes, and has a trippy, Alice in Wonderland/witchy-esque aesthetic. If your friend is in a LTR with the Kat Von D eyeliner, likes mushrooms (both kinds), and/or has ever gone as a Wes Anderson character for Halloween, bingo! Shop for them here. They also have great jewelry and like everywhere mentioned on this list, a wonderful staff.
My favorite and local bookstore is also one of LA’s oldest. Chevalier’s Books stocks all the latest and greatest and their staff are incredibly thoughtful and well read. Sometimes I like going in their with a prompt—"Can you find me something like Less but F4F?” Or “I really love How to Do Nothing what should I read next?” And they’ll sprint across the store and gather three options that I would’ve never picked for myself. Honestly, just go in there, describe the giftee and you’ll end up with something fantastic.
The Crowd Went Wild in Virgil Village is where the aforementioned vegetable-shaped soap came from and it’s a really lovely gift shop. I love that it doesn’t carry everything, you know? But everything it does have is very vibrant and silly and fun. It’s nothing you need, but stuff you just have to have. I especially love all their jewelry and home decor.
Finally, my place of worship, Candle Delirium. I could go on and on and *on* about Candle Delirium but I think I’ve already made you a convert. Just go. Also! It’s a superior candle shop because it doesn’t smell overwhelmingly saccharine or headache-inducing when you walk in. I think it’s due to all the shakers of coffee they have lying around to cleanse your nose palette. CD4E.
If you’ve got gift-giving questions you can DM me and I may just set up a holiday gifting hotline over on Instagram @evapants if you don’t already follow!
Happy Gifting & Happy Holidays! <3