CHRISTMAS IN WHOVILLE

The 2025 Old Fashioned Gift Guide

Before we begin, let me start with a really shameless self-plug and say that the absolute best place to shop for holiday gifts this year is my new store Mess! Come in and see all the incredible treasures that I’ve sourced for you and your loved ones: pink patent ballet flats, hand-moulded hair clips, and cashmere cardigans knitted in Milan. My husband and I worked so hard to get the shop open for the holidays, so please come in and celebrate with us if you are in New York this month. We can’t wait to see you!!!

Having children adds a certain element of magic to the holidays: their sweet voices singing carols, their endless appetite for gingerbread, their proclivity to worship the Grinch… Oh, just mine? Ever since she first laid eyes upon him, my eldest daughter has been smitten with the pot-bellied, green-furred villain whose sole desire is to steal gifts from sleeping children. I live with a kid who–year-round, mind you–says things like ‘I hope I dream of the Grinch tonight!’ and ‘Is it almost GRINCH TIME?!’. She’s partial to the 1966 TV special of Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas! animated by Chuck Jones and narrated by Boris Karloff, which I must admit is infinitely more beautiful than its two more modern iterations.

As we watch and re-watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas! each year, I am continually smitten with the little Whos, bastions of joyful naïvete who live in psychedelic, quasi-Alpine town that looks, well, cosy as fuck. Their holiday is stolen and smeared by the Grinch, yet they still link up to sing as the sun rises and celebrate the dawn of a new winter’s day. I cry! Wouldn’t it be wonderful to spend Christmas there?

So without further ado, let me present to you: CHRISTMAS IN WHOVILLE! We’ve got plenty of Seussical whimsy, grumpiness and delight in equal measure, and swaths of green (to counteract all that pink, red, and white that I’ve gone so hard for the past few years…). What follows is a selection of fifty-plus gifts, most of which fall below $100 (and lots under $20!) because Whoville is all about the spirit of gift-giving—not competitive spending. I’ve got Gifts for the Home, Gifts for Eating, Gifts for Wearing, Gifts for Children, and Wrapping & Decorating. Items under $20 are denoted with a * and items under $100 are marked with a ⭑. To snowy Mount Crumpit we go!