JOURNAL
Merry and Bright
The holiday season is intoxicating, filled with long-standing familial traditions and newly-made ones. With this most festive time of year in full swing, we collected a few of our favorite ways to savor these magical and oh-so-fleeting moments with our friends and loved ones—from recipes, to gift ideas, and much more.
Cotswolds by Candlelight
Our friend Amanda Brooks has an unerring eye for curation—which touches everything from her personal style to the way she curates her charming farmhouse in the Cotswolds and the nearby boutique, Cutter Brooks, an artful collection of objects and special items for the home informed by her travels and daily life in the English countryside. In fact, Brooks has become something of an Instagram sensation for her holiday decor, with bowls overflowing with mushroom ornaments, homemade hand-strung popcorn, no shortage of candles, and a fireplace festooned with garlands—real and fake. “More is more” she says. “You never ever walk into a decorated room at Christmas and think, gee, this just too much.”
"I prefer simpler shapes when it comes to printed dresses–and the Merla is romantic and feminine but also refined."
- AMANDA BROOKS
Present Tense?
We’ve rounded up a few of our favorite gifts—whisper-thin nighties, a vintage-inspired Fair Isle hat-and-mitten set, and Katherine’s favorite stretchy pointelle knitwear separates, to name a few— sure to delight everyone on your list. And for the hardest to please, there’s always a digital gift card.
At the Ballet
Getting dressed up and watching a local performance of The Nutcracker is a long-standing family tradition for our co-founders Margaret and Katherine, where everyone, including the little ones, gets in on dressing up for a special afternoon out.
Sugar, Spice, and Everything Nice
There are few things more delightful than a warm drink on a chilly day, and it’s for this exact reason that we find ourselves leaning on our dear friend Amy Blessing’s mulling spice recipe. She creates her homemade blend by combining a couple of cinnamon sticks, a tablespoon of whole cloves, a tablespoon of whole allspice berries, a tablespoon of star anise, and a few dried orange slices or some dried orange rind. When mixed with wine or cider, this fragrant mix creates an intoxicating concoction that’ll warm you from the inside out.