Holiday Gift Guide: Home For The Holidays
If you’re home for the holidays, take a deep breath and look around at the place where you grew up. Be happy that your family gave you what they could – and reward them with something that makes their house a home.
After all, home is where you left your childhood heart – especially during the holidays.
Been feeling a little like Marie Antoinette lately? Why not light your home like Versailles? Founded in 1643, Cire Trudon became the Royal wax manufacturer, serving the Queen and her court at Versailles, utilizing the best wax collected from the beehives of the Kingdom. In 1811, Napoleon celebrated his son’s birth with a Trudon candle encrusted with three gold coins.
Today, Cire Trudon’s motto remains “The bees work for God – and the King.” We might add, “and You” – because these candles are the crème de la crème. Poured from Trudon’s signature vegetal wax, a mixture of soya and copra (dried coconut kernels), with a pure cotton wick, Cire Trudon’s candles are entirely biodegradable.
Our favorite fragrance for the holidays, Spiritus Sancti opens with vapors of incense that will have searching for the thurible. With a heart note of lily of the valley and a basenote of labdanum that evokes the muskiness of amber, Spiritus Sancti evokes one of those services at the Cathedral affectionately known as “Smoky Mary’s,” where midnight Mass on Christmas Eve is a banquet of bells and smells.
Once the fragrances permeate your rooms, it’s your call as to whether you’ll be singing Handel’s “Messiah” or declaiming, “Let them eat cake.”
Made in Normandy, France and housed in a gold-crested, hand-blown glass vessel from Vinci, Italy, Cire Trudon’s candles have a 75-85 hour burn time. That’s plenty of time for you to determine if you’re the Queen or the Bishop.
PRICE: $80.00 / 9.5 oz
LINK: Cire Trudon Spiritus Sancti Candle
Look, humans have been around for six million years – and no matter how powerful your iPhone or your iPad, that’s too many years for you to find all the answers with a few keystrokes. Besides, on an itty bitty screen, it’s very difficult to comprehend the breadth of Alexander the Great’s conquests – or how New York in 1871 was larger than Beijing.
If, after completing years of humanities and world history, you’re still struggling to determine where Mesopotamia fits with Babylon and Thebes and the Zapotec culture (answer: they’re all from the 2nd millennium BC), then “The New Atlas of World History” is the answer you’ve been seeking.
Exactly as its title suggests, this stunningly illustrated atlas of history and geography features 55 color-coded maps that encompass the entirety of human history – from all around the world. One gaze at a double-page map tells you that when Baghdad was the world’s largest city, the Pueblo culture ruled the American Southwest while the kingdoms of Germany and France rose out of the break-up of Charlemagne’s empire.
Interspersed with the full-color maps and 48 illustrated timelines are concise summaries of notable cultural and historical events, such as a feature on the spread of the world’s major writing systems – for, as author John Haywood states, it is “the adoption of writing that marks the end of a society’s prehistory.”
While you might not consider “The New Atlas of World History” to be connubial reading, you might also remember that the mind is the seat of all sex. Show off your smarts. Fill up your partner’s head with the facts of human history – and then celebrate your genealogy with humanity’s age-old rhythms.
PRICE: $49.50 / cloth / 256 pages w/350 color illustrations and 55 maps
LINK: The New Atlas of World History: Global Events at a Glance
So you don’t have a fireplace for the holidays? Get yourself the Hype Noses candle and listen to the crackling of the wooden wick. A bit like rain on a tin roof, the sound is every bit as soothing as the Yule log on cable television – and before you know it, you’ll be singing “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.”
The Hype Noses candles come from the Parisian perfumer Stephane Humbert Lucas, which means that these candles are drenched in fragrance. With a 15% perfume base, the scent permeates the air and elevates your mood. These elegant, vegetable wax candles are made of soy and palm, which affords a creamy texture for a delicate suffusion of the fragrance.
The 24 Caramels Urban Candle is equivalent to inhaling deeply of a vat of simmering sugar and butter on its way to becoming caramel. The smell is so tempting that you would almost risk a burned tongue – to taste it on your palate.
Light the 24 Caramels candle and you’ll soon see yourself locked in a bakery late at night: no one but you, the pastry chef, and the intoxicating fragrance of salted caramel cupcakes. Notes of vanilla mix with coconut milk and caramel, with a hint of Canadian balsam from the little pine tree next to the front register. And all the while, the wooden wick crackles with a slow-burning flame that is as hypnotizing as one in a wood-burning fireplace.
Happy Holidays, Santa baby!
PRICE: $68.00
LINK: The Hype Noses 24 Caramels Urban Candle
Back in the early Eighties, in certain gay bars around Boston and other Northeastern cities, it wasn’t uncommon to see gay boys arriving at gay bars on certain nights, teddy bears in tow, ready to watch the PBS television broadcast of “Brideshead Revisited.”
Apart from a teddy bear renaissance (and particularly those named Aloysius), the award-winning series launched the career of limpid-eyed actor and heartthrob Jeremy Irons. With an international cast of award-winning actors, “Brideshead Revisited” was based on Evelyn Waugh’s classic roman fleuve – and took more than two years to film. With more than eleven episodes, clocking in at nearly 700 minutes, the ravishing series is the equivalent length of seven feature films.
Thirty years later, “Brideshead Revisited” is more acclaimed than ever. The British Film Institute placed “Brideshead Revisited” at number ten on the “100 Greatest Television Programmes.”
With the recent massive popularity of the British series “Downdon Abbey” (now in its second season), the release of the 30th-anniversary edition of “Brideshead Revisited” could hardly be more fortuitous. The four-disc DVD and the three-disc Blu-ray set feature a brand-new HD transfer, as well as bonus features such as the “Revisiting Brideshead” documentary, four episode commentaries, outtakes, photo galleries, and a viewer’s guide.
This holiday season, return to Brideshead.
PRICE: $59.99 / DVD or $69.99 / Blu-ray
LINK: “Brideshead Revisited: 30th Anniversary Edition”
There is nothing like fragrance to take you home for the holidays. You pass by a stand of cut Christmas trees and, just like that, you’re a child again, trudging through the snow with your family in search of the perfect blue spruce.
With a fragrant mix of cypress, fir, and plum, Caldrea’s Balsam Fir Plum Holiday Candle evokes those wintry wanderings – and then the return home to a kitchen filled with the smell of holiday baking. Okay, so we’re idealizing – but even if your mother was a lousy cook or your family Jewish or you are Ebenezer Scrooge, there’s something wonderfully inviting about the scent of this candle. Light this in your apartment and you’ll succumb to the season’s charms.
Based in Minneapolis, Caldrea has been making home cleaning products that are as luxurious as skin care products – because they got sick and tired of harsh chemicals and medicinal smells on their skin. Caldrea’s candles are made with a vegetable wax base with a paper and cotton wick and arrive packaged in a gift box. Generously sized with a sixty-hour burn time, Caldrea’s Balsam Fir Plum Holiday Candle is housed in a stunning gold glass vessel that can be reused as a nightstand bud vase for a couple of white roses.
Caldrea’s other seasonal candles are Crimson Pear Ginger and Pineapple Cardamom – and the trio would make a lovely holiday gift basket.
PRICE: $25.00 / 9.1 oz
LINK: Caldrea Balsam Fir Plum Holiday Candle
Late in September, we were washing our hands at the kitchen sink – and the next thing we knew, we were singing “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.” What happened, right? Take it from us, one whiff of Mrs. Meyer’s Iowa Pine scented household products and you’ll be off to the North Pole with Santa’s elves.
So much of what’s best about the holidays are the fragrances our memory associates with celebration. Light one of Mrs. Meyer’s Spice Cake scented soy candles and you’ll know what we mean. Just like that, your office is filled with such an abundance of cloves, ginger, and cinnamon that you’d swear you were working at Magnolia Bakery.
And if you’ve never enjoyed cleaning up after holiday cooking, all you need is a big squirt of Mrs. Meyer’s Orange Clove Liquid Dish Soap – and you’ll want to immerse your whole body in the kitchen sink. The smell of oranges and cloves is so intoxicating that you might think you’re a baked ham.
With four limited edition seasonal scents, you can enjoy Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day household products all through the holiday season. Inspired by an Iowa homemaker who got tired of harsh chemicals, Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day is named after an Iowa homemaker’s mother who practiced common sense in child-rearing and cleaning.
Consider creating a gift basket filled with Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day Limited Edition Seasonal Products – and a couple homemade orange clove pomander balls (oranges dotted with cloves, tied up with a bow).
Mix and match the Iowa Pine products with those scented with Cranberry, Spice Cake, and Orange Clove. The soy candles have a 25-hour burn time and come in a reusable jelly jar, perfect for storing holiday frippery. The liquid dish soaps contain soap bark extract, while the liquid hand soaps are formulated with aloe vera gel and olive oil – and all the products are loaded with plant-derived ingredients and natural essential oils. The Iowa Pine, for example, has a touch of clove and cedar – and as we said, it’s enough to make you feel you’re riding with Rudolph. “Haul out the holly…”
PRICE: from $3.99 to $6.99
LINK: Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day: Limited Edition Seasonal Scents Household Products
If there’s a rebellious teen on your holiday list or a recalcitrant male in a state of arrested development, then a stink bomb by Cire Trudon is precisely what you’re looking for. These sadistic baubles are perfect for turning a sudden rage into a fragrant bubble. Flung to the ground in a fit of pique, the little bottles smash into smithereens, whereupon a cloud of fragrance permeates the air. Anger dissolves into beauty.
Caveat emptor: bare feet not recommended in vicinity of shattered glass. As for the fragrance, Spiritus Sancti evokes the incense of the great cathedrals of the Western world – as well as, perhaps, your years singing in the choir. Come to think of it, Cire Trudon Stink Bombs might be just the thing for your parish priest.
PRICE: $50.00 / 10 vials
LINK: Cire Trudon Stink Bombs
The other evening, we were hosting people for cocktails before dinner – and as soon as one young woman entered the apartment, she exclaimed, “Your apartment smells so delicious. What is that smell?” She raced right over to the candle on the coffee table and nearly sent hot wax everywhere in her quest to determine who made this candle and what its fragrance might be.
We could’ve told her that it was a candle from Exceptional Parfums, in Vanilla Sensual. The fragrance from the 8.8 ounce candle in the tapered glass lingers long after the flame has been extinguished, hovering in the air like freshly baked holiday cookies.
If you’re too lazy to bake and more inclined to head to Magnolia, light one of these candles and enjoy the smell of buttercream frosting long after you’ve wolfed down those cupcakes.
Available in four seasonal scents, including Apple Wood, Orange Ginger, and Fresh Linen – and if you order from FragranceNet on Black Friday, you get free shipping with code BFEP3.
PRICE: $24.50 / 8.8 oz candle
LINK: Exceptional Parfums Limited Edition Scented Candles
The pineapple is probably the most recognized symbol of hospitality – and especially when you’re making pina coladas. However, not every occasion is a frat party. Next time you’re in need of a holiday host/ess gift, think about offering some of Caldrea’s Pineapple Cardamom household products.
Based in Minneapolis, Caldrea has been making home cleaning products that are as luxurious as skin care products – because they got sick and tired of harsh chemicals and medicinal smells on their skin. Caldrea’s home cleaning products are earth-friendly, with every liquid biodegradable, and all packaging recyclable. All Caldrea products are free of ammonia, chlorine, phosphates, and petroleum distillates.
Recently, Caldrea introduced their latest holiday fragrance: Pineapple Cardamom. The warm spicy cardamom is a natural complement to the tropical scent of pineapple – and the addition of anise, orange, and black pepper makes this fragrance a seasonal cornucopia. The result is a home cleaning product that smells good enough to apply to your skin. In fact, we heard about one man who became so intoxicated with this scent that he cleaned the floors of his entire apartment – on his hands and knees.
Caldrea’s Pineapple Cardamom household products include dish soap liquid (made with soapbark extract for degreasing), countertop cleanser (containing a vegetable protein extract), hand soap liquid (with aloe vera gel, olive oil, and essential oils), and hand lotion (enriched with shea butter, aloe vera, and glycerin). Put a bunch of Pineapple Cardamom products in a gift basket – with a note saying it’s the next best thing to going to Hawaii for the holidays.
PRICE: $9.00 – $10.50
LINK: Caldrea Pineapple Cardamom Household Products
