Gift shopping gets pretty tedious and ugly right around now. The
leisurely joy of browsing the colorful circus of consumer goods in a
pleasant haze of benevolence is fading, replaced by the taut anxiety of
an approaching deadline and a haunting sense of undone chores. The
obvious presents are bought already. The tough cases remain on your
list, silently mocking you. Now's the time to get creative about filling
in the gaps.
Spice it up
Does the prospective recipient of your largesse love cooking? Or even
just eating? Visit Penzey's for
exotic spices, such as whole Tellicherry peppercorns or high-grade
Vietnamese cassia cinnamon. Those are both fairly safe choices for most
foodies. Of course, if you know your loved one particularly enjoys
cooking, say, Provençal or Bengali food, go ahead and choose the
distinctive aromatics associated with the cuisine in question. The
site's articles on the major types of spice and briefer descriptions of
individual spices are very helpful in this regard, and make fascinating
reading. Remember, herbs and spices are great for imparting flavor and
complexity to low-fat cooking, which can taste bland and insipid without
them -- in other words, they make a nice, virtuous gift that still feels
deliciously luxurious and decadent.
Need to make a splash?
Three words: Claus Porto soap. This is, let me tell you,
intimidatingly superb soap. It just so happens to be on the razor edge
of fashion at the moment. But I wouldn't care a whit if it weren't,
because it comes in huge, generous, outsized, gigantic bars, all in the
most wondrous scents imaginable. I am overcome by their perfection. The
florals aren't too sweet, the masculine aromatics aren't too musky. They
are like olfactory glimpses of a better, purer world. I like Condessa
(wild pansy) and Banho (citron verbena). The wrappings are all in
marvelous Art Deco patterns, and there are bath foams, too, in fabulous
tall thin silver bottles. Give it to a household member and then borrow
it a lot, and don't feel guilty, because there'll be plenty to go
around. Like I said, these are heapin' helpin's o' soap.
Claus Porto products are for sale through beautyjungle.com,
The Soap
Bar, or Bergdorf Goodman. That's in ascending order of price --
Bergdorf adds quite a markup, though I expect they'll ship everything
very prettily for you.
Toys to rely on
For the child in your life, think about bypassing the ubiquitous
Pokémon, which will only make you feel inadequate, in favor of something
that's a little more tried and true. The Erector set
is a classic and comes in several updated versions that enable kids to
build mini-machines with moving parts. Navigate your way through the
bewildering array of products offered by the marvelous Lego company, here.
(Pace the newfangled Mindstorms robot sets; I still get happy
whenever I'm lucky enough to come across any good, versatile, basic Lego
set, and I'm, well, let's say I'm definitely a fully qualified grown-up.
Lego doesn't get old.) With a parent's permission, consider the
back-to-basics little
red wagon. There is much to be said for that most noble legacy of
the 1970s, the Etch-a-Sketch.
And you could always do worse than Monopoly,
which, I firmly maintain, teaches good values.
That's a wrap
Here's something I just know some of you will be able to use this
week: step-by-step, photo-illustrated directions on how to wrap a
present properly. The directions are a touch obsessive-compulsive --
it is not true that you have to measure and allow exactly two inches of
slack, for instance -- but the basic method is sound. There are also
lots of extra links on this page for those Mini-Marthas among us who
long to branch out into more imaginative wrapping approaches or explore
arcana such as do-it-yourself bow-tying.
Going anywhere for New Year's?
Most of the people I know seem to be eschewing anything showy for the
millennial New Year's Eve and hunkering quietly down at home with the
loved ones, the champagne, and a comforting pantry full of cans and
candles. I can think of one friend who's traveling as far as the Florida
Keys for New Year's, but that's it. Your mileage, though, may vary (to
coin a phrase). If you do have the last-minute urge to plan a trip
somewhere, you'll benefit from everyone else's timidity; there's a
decent chance you'll find room available wherever you decide to go. Just
think it through a bit. Read this country-by-country breakdown of
anticipated Y2K travel
difficulties abroad and at home. The FAA is adopting a generally reassuring
attitude about holiday travel, but it can't hurt to be wary. Drivers should
be aware of scheduled road closings. Speaking
of gift-wrapping, by the way, safety considerations have led some
airlines to prohibit wrapped gifts from being brought on board. So, if
you're playing Santa Claus for the holidays, you may want to wait to
wrap up your offerings after arriving at your destination.