I’ve spent a lot of my free time this week trying to “get into the holiday spirit,” a goal that has no definition and is therefore difficult to achieve. I sliced and baked and threaded orange slices for homemade garland. I cleaned my apartment from top to bottom leaving little trinkets — gnomes whose fluffy white beards glow as night lights and glass candlesticks adorned in bows — in my wake. I attempted to watch several Christmassy specials on Netflix before acknowledging that I just wanted to watch “The Crown.” One of the episodes had a Christmas scene, which assuaged my guilt some (despite it being slightly depressing). I’ve forced holiday music to stamp out every quiet moment around my apartment. I’ve drunk several Tom and Jerrys. I saw a live local performance of “A Christmas Carol,” where actors in Victorian garb pregamed the performance by singing vintage carols, and I watched a jazz trio play Vince Guaraldi’s “Charlie Brown Christmas” soundtrack. I decorated a gingerbread house with my best friends (that did feel really festive). There’s a walking tour of Germany’s Nuremberg Christmas Market playing on my TV right now. It even snowed!!! But has it worked?
To give myself and Donny Hathaway and the videographer at the Nuremberg market some credit, my efforts have paid off at least a bit. I feel much more festive than I did last year.
It was an afternoon spent shopping with my parents at the mall that made me feel most spirited, maybe because I felt like a kid again. Wandering the mall with my mom, drinking coffee and chatting about trends, ogling the seasonal decor at Anthropologie (they do kill it every year with the holiday decorations) and taking in the big red bows and twinkling trees together. Not even holiday “Bake Off” could make me feel as festive as I did that afternoon (though I am super excited for this year’s episode, which comes out today. I keep track of these things.).
I hope to feel festive tomorrow, since I’m hosting a holiday party.
If you want to envelop yourself in the holiday season, plan a party. It’s motivated me to clean and decorate my apartment so that it feels a little more special than normal for my friends, and it’s helped me feel like I’m contributing to the season because I’ve been given a task (even if I gave myself that task). We derive a lot of joy from anticipating upcoming events, as long as we don’t build our expectations up too high.
However, I still don’t know what to wear.
I know I have plenty to wear, but some things seem ill-advised. I recently read a story in The Financial Times that nailed the sartorial conundrum of dressing for a holiday party as a host. As one seasoned party host put it, you need an outfit that allows you to move fluidly through several kinds of moments, from pulling something out of the oven to greeting guests to running around. And since I’m having the kind of party that may be crowded with people drinking dark cranberry rum punch and red wine, I’m also scared about splashing stains onto a pretty, dry-clean-only dress. The hosts in the FT article mostly agreed on wearing chic, dark suits of some sort, or a velvet top with slouchy jeans, or just going for it with the occasional dress.
One of the perks of hosting a holiday party is ensuring you have an occasion to wear a holiday party outfit… and having the ability to make an outfit change, if necessary. Maybe I’ll start the party in a fancy dress and then change into a dark suit when things get riskier. Red wine be damned against black trousers.
Here’s what I wore this week:
Thanks for reading! 🫒
xx Francesca