In Los Angeles, Botox comes before Santa Claus
On knitwear, Black Friday, and Christmas trimmings.
I’d like every holiday party this season to feel like this painting by Jake Stutz—
I’m seriously bothered about knitwear at the moment. I want everything &Daughter is producing out of Ireland (my native country). It helps that Ana Roque shoots all their product—I’m a big fan of hers. I don’t own a single turtleneck sweater (LA) so this is top of my list. I’m trying to incorporate more color into my wardrobe so this is nice, too. A more affordable version from J. Crew will have to do. I am on an actress salary! I’d love to show up to my family Christmas wearing this darling number. I urge you to mindlessly scroll their site.
It now takes 7 hours to find the Screenshots folder in my phone after updating my iOS and also super amazing that my phone is 12x slower than before. Anyways, I’m drooling over this A.P.C. Beige Turtleneck Sweater. I love the little flap at the collar. This Rubato v-neck that Max suggested in the last gift guide is quite nice. I want to buy it for my boyfriend so I can wear it, too. We share clothes. I tried on this cashmere coat yesterday at Scout and cannot stop thinking about it.
A few more things on my wishlist are a new bathmat because I’ve had mine since I lived in Williamsburg (gross? Or nostalgic?…many ex-boyfriends feet have touched it…) Autumn Sonata makes a great one. I’ve been wanting to try a retinol for a while and my friend and acupuncturist Rachel Day sings praises for this one from CAP Beauty. Sadly, it’s sold out at the moment, but I’m on the waitlist. I’ve been making Christmas cookies every year since I could walk so this is also on my list. Plus, the new Apartamento Elsa Peretti Interiors book. I am a woman after all. I’ve thought about the Flos Bellhop lamp for many years now, but may just opt for something dinky off Facebook marketplace. I’ve been wanting to dip my toes into the world of Augustinus Bader and figure this balm is a PG place to start.
Here’s what I acquired over Black Friday weekend–
A Carter Young scarf, personalized stationery, two more presents for Carter which will remain anonymous at this time because he reads this letter (supportive), this Baserange top, Porta glassware, a handmade soap dish from Pierce & Ward in Los Feliz, Maria la Rosa socks, and a Melagrano candle from Santa Maria Novella.
Over the weekend, I got the sudden urge to make my own wreath. I had seen a few on Instagram that inspired me and they didn’t look like one’s I had seen ready for purchase at say, a Christmas tree lot, or Home Depot, so I took myself downtown to the Flower Market on Monday morning and stockpiled greenery, pink peppercorns, and what I believe are dried elderberries.
I had to drive across town to get a wreath form and some wire (zero craft stores on the East side of Los Angeles?). I’m not a DIY blog so if you want to do this you’ll have to figure it out. It takes two minutes of a YouTube tutorial to learn. I am very particular, which hindered me from getting what I wanted here, which was something more messy. I was going for I-found-these-sticks-in-the-woods-and-threw-a- ribbon-around-it kind of thing, but this is how it turned out. I still like it very much.
I used the leftover greenery for my mantle, the prized possession of my home. I got this gorgeous vase from what was then Chickee’s Vintage a few years ago and put the extra elderberry branches inside and tied black velvet ribbons on some of the branches. It’s the perfect contrast for my very cheerful tree.
After lugging my lights out of storage and plugging them in I found that two strings of them decided to stop working in certain areas. I’m not an electrician, so after one of the open wires electrocuted me, I drove to get five more boxes of lights because I didn’t think the tree was bright enough. Stringing lights on the tree is one day going to be enough to drive me to drink (I’m sober). I joked to Carter that one day I’m going to be the pill-popping wife—the American dream! The second most tedious task is to tinsel a tree which I did the next morning, two separate times. Come to find out the kind of tree I have may not be the best for tinseling? The branches are closer together which makes separating and evenly distributing the strands more difficult. After making an absolute mess of my living room, I took the tinsel off and decided to utilize the red velvet bows I bought weeks ago at Williams Sonoma. They look perfect. Instead of tinsel this year I’m leaning into the strings of beads. However, if you do have tinseling tips…I’m not opposed to adding it…
I now present this year’s tree—
Growing up in Baltimore, I had the privilege of visiting Valley View Farms every Christmas season. Walls and aisles of ornaments lined with tree displays, trimmings in every color, and Christmas village displays for sale. I expected this— a version of this kind of place— in every place I resided. Then, I moved to LA four years ago. The first year I got my own tree, I had no ornaments. I thought it would be obvious…you plug in “Christmas” to Maps and dozens of places come up. Wrong. Where was the Valley View Farms? Where are all the Christmas stores? Where is there a garden center with as much dedication to Christmas as Valley View Farms? Unfortunately, I found zero. I purchased most of my specialty ornaments that year at Nordstrom. Maybe I’m not looking hard enough or don’t know the secrets of The Valley quite yet. Please let me know if I’m missing a Christmas mega store in Toluca Lake or something.
New York is a different story. New York loves Christmas. New York is basically Christmas on crack. You go to New York in December and you know exactly what you’re gonna get. LA Christmas is not that. I think people don’t go all out because it’s warmer. They don’t understand the snow aspect of Christmas, basically 30% of what the holiday is based around. Who is going to the Christmas tree lighting at the Grove? I was there that evening because I needed to go to the Apple Store and there was a line that stretched onto 3rd Street…you had to walk through metal detectors to get in. Were government officials attending?
I’ve purchased most of my bulb ornaments at Target. The special ones from random places, my mother gifted me some, and others I’ve acquired from random Christmas markets. Bucatini in Echo Park has the best ornaments in LA (they also offer gorgeous gift boxes available to ship, I gifted my shrink one last year) that I’ve found so far. I got 6 new ones there this year. Also picked up a chocolate panettone and some Italian shortbread cookies that are boxed in the shape of a purse. There’s even a ribbon handle! Chic.
I love classic Christmas ornaments. John Derian has the best ones. Nickey Kehoe also has a nice selection. I love this nostalgic bundled snow lady. The other day I saw a Botox needle ornament with the Botox drip (?) coming out of the needle in glitter. Welcome to Los Angeles. The city of dreams. Tinsel Town.
For your holiday viewing pleasure I recommend: the entire Angels In America HBO series from 2003 (I want to name my future son Priar. Carter says absolutely not, “too waspy”), While You Were Sleeping (1995), or The Wizard of Oz (1939).
My dad’s father (from what I remember) refused to listen to anything else besides classical music at ear-splitting volume. Music like that is ingrained into my memory, instantly bringing me back to the arms of my grandmother. My dad grew up for a period of time in Leuven, Belgium from the ages of 10-11 and while he was there, sang in a choir where they sang ancient and contemporary church music in Latin, French, German, Flemish, and English. This particular Christmas album came out in 1974, and then again in 1994, the year my parents got married. My mother claims she can hear my father’s voice out of all the children. How sweet of her.
When Carter and I were decorating the tree on Sunday night, Do You Hear What I Hear? came on the Christmas radio and I was humming along. He told me I'm the only person he knows that knows all the words to that song. I did, after all, used to go properly caroling when I was a tween. Knock knock and Jingle Bells.
If there’s one thing I am sure of, it’s that I am damn good at Christmas.
Botox ornament postscript—
moody mantle and cheerful tree are a perfect pair