There are things you pull out of storage year after year to celebrate the holidays. You buy them once and are done for life. Then there are the things you need to buy fresh every December, and I’ve rounded up some of my favorites here. I feel like there might be a thing or two I’ve missed; let me know if you think of something, or find a cool alternative to what I came up with.

These are my picks for the “Holiday Inevitables”.
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Chanukah Soda 4-Pack, $6
Every year Rob and I buy the holiday pack from Jones, and we’re going to have to get this one, too! I’m a little scared to taste the “latke” soda. I wonder if it’s like the “mashed potatoes” kind in last years pack. Bleck!

at myjones.com

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Cranberry Kir – Winter Bliss Tin, $5
I picked one of these up from Anthropologie last year and I still have it. The wick is long gone, but I’ve remelted the leftover wax several times to let the good smell out into the air. I like to buy one candle per year, just for Christmas, and I try to think outside of the ankee-Yay andle-Cay box. The website says “100% all natural wax”, but the one I have says “soy” on the label. I think they’re trying to appeal to the (surprisingly numerous) people who roll their eyes at soy candles.

The smell is called “Cranberry Kir”. I have no idea what that means (typo? Cranberry Fir? That’s actually about right.) Anyway, it smells like Christmas.

at illumecandles.com

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Vermont Balsam and Cedar Christmas Wreath, $15
I knew that the large outdoorsy retailers offer fresh wreaths, so I went to seek them out for this post. Internet, they are shockingly expensive. I said to the dogs sitting at my feet, “One hundred dollars for some pine wrapped around a wire? Ppppth.” Plus the decorations they come with are cornier than a Bozo wig. This one is nice, simple, and homey. I like that it looks handmade, and it’s inexpensive. There are no ghastlly decorations, either; you can add your own ornaments or leave it plain.

I read the shop’s description, too, and I’d paraphrase, but they said it so well:

We are two neighbors and friends. One of us is a mom of four and the other a mom of two and grandma. We love living in the country, caring for our families, enjoying our animal friends, and being creative. We do a great job of keeping each other busy and getting ourselves into exciting new adventures (a.k.a. trouble)!

at etsy.com

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Beeswax Hanukkah Candles, $12
A more colorful way to celebrate Hanukkah.

at popjudaica.com

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Peppermint Bark, $26.50
A cherished holiday treat by many, just not by me. I want to like it, because it’s beautiful, but I’m so not a peppermint person. Ah well. If your family is into peppermint, I hear this is the creme de la creme of peppermint candy.

at williams-sonoma.com

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Ginger Bread House Kit, $14
Leave the from-scratch houses to Martha. Don’t try to make the walls and roof of a gingerbread house yourself. It’s so not worth it. I promise. Just buy a kit. No, no. Listen. Trust me. You don’t need to try it “just once”.

at amazon.com

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18-year-old Macallan, $124
If you have nutty relatives you’ll be forced to deal with over a turkey dinner, this is an extremely classy single malt way to cope.

at themacallan.com for stores

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Lieber’s Milk Chocolate Gelt, $11
The kind folks at Oh Nuts! emailed me and asked if I would please mention them in my gift guides this year. I said yes; I love any company that twitters, and they have such nice Hanukkah gift baskets. You’d think a gift basket is a gift basket is a gift basket, but every year my in-laws get them by the truck load, and most of them include things forbidden in their kosher household. It’s something I think a lot of people don’t consider. So my PSA for the season: if you’re sending a gift basket to a Jewish family, make sure it doesn’t include smoked pepperoni, you know?

They sent me some Lieber’s gelt, too, in both “dairy” and “parve” (that’s milk chocolate and dark chocolate to the gentiles!) Unlike a lot of the “chocolate flavored” foil wrapped crud available, this stuff is gooood (ask Stu!; she liked it)! I will never buy another brand of gelt again. (The milk chocolate is my fave!)

at ohnuts.com

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30 lb. Brown Kraft Wrapping Paper – 36″, $39
Save yourself from the world of corny, flimsy, mis-matched, eco-unfriendly and EXPENSIVE wrapping paper! This 100% recycled brown kraft paper can wrap all of your gifts; blue ribbon goes on the Hanukkah presents, and red can be for Christmas (I’m not sure what color would be for Kwanzaa.) (Yes, I’m very aware that I am half black. I still don’t know.) The rest of the year you can use another color ribbon and call it your “signature wrapping”.

At first glance this seems expensive, but considering this roll is much longer than standard wrapping paper, AND you can use it for EVERYthing, you’re saving a bundle. Just add plain gift tags, and you’re done!

at reliablepaper.com

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Double-faced Satin Ribbon – 1.5″, $11
Available in all sorts of colors. Your “signature wrapping” could be any one of them! (I am, by the way, SO going to do this signature wrapping thing. Feel free to copy me. We can be classy together.) They have a nice red that would work for Christmas, and a nice royal blue, too, for Hanukkah. Kwanzaa has to be in there somewhere…

at papermart.com

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