Has December already asked too much of you? Are you oscillating between genuine festive joy and the quiet urge to disappear under the nearest fluffy blanket? Is your screen time split evenly between group chats about plans, endless shopping sites, your furious bank account and tabs searching for a holiday far away from this holiday?
If yes, welcome, you’ve reached the right place. The final month of the year can simultaneously feel like the longest and shortest month of the year. With that in mind, our team put together our recommendations for what is getting us through December. From a book to retreat into when things get loud, films to watch when you need comfort, podcasts that remind you love still exists in unexpected places, traditions you can make your own, and a way to combine thoughtful gift giving with sustainability, settle down with some hot chocolate (or the biggest wine glass you can find in your childhood home) and dive into this month’s Lazies’ List.
READ
Julie is reading Bread of Angels.
Patti Smith is one of the few people I can truly call an artist.
Her Just Kids and A Book of Days were revelations to me back then, but for this list I’m choosing her latest book — described as her most intimate memoir — Bread of Angels, released on November 4, 2025. The date is not accidental, as it corresponds to the birthday of her late ex-husband, Fred Smith, and that of Robert Mapplethorpe, the famed New York photographer and close friend of the artist, who died of AIDS in 1989.
“It took a decade to write this book, grappling with the beauty and sorrow of a lifetime,” Smith said. “I’m hoping that people will find something they need.”
This year was also significant for Patti Smith, as her iconic album Horses celebrated its 50th anniversary.
In Bread of Angels, Patti guides the reader through her early childhood and teenage years; a string of homes and illnesses; marrying the love of her life; her rise to fame, motherhood, and writing; and her later retreat from public life. Arthur Rimbaud, Bob Dylan, and the many losses she has endured appear throughout.
Patti Smith is a living legend, and I’d been waiting for this book ever since it was announced — and I was not disappointed. It reads like a beautiful poem or a song. Manifesting her arriving in Paris for the signing!
Lauren is reading Wintering.
Wintering is the perfect read for settling into this season as we edge ever closer to the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere.
Best enjoyed under a blanket with a hot drink in hand, the subtitle of Katherine May’s 2020 bestselling book is The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times, which has felt ever-apt since its release just before a global pandemic.
In sharing personal tales of challenging circumstances, May encourages readers to lean into the dark and cold and find the beauty within such conditions. Exploring the cycles of nature from October to March, as well as cultural traditions across Europe for how people prepare for, battle through, and even enjoy wintering, this book is as educational as it is comforting.
Taking a seasonal metaphor and applying it to times of difficulty that force us to look deeper, get small, and even, yes, be lazy, there are practical ideas as well as gentle encouragement to be taken from the author who does well to practice what she preaches. It’s not a NYT bestseller for nothing, and deserves to be revisited even if it’s a text you’re already familiar with. I read it for the first time in November last year, and it’s been calling me to dive in again.
If you need a reminder to stop doing and start being this season, let this be it.
WATCH
Gretchen is watching Dash & Lily.
The year is 2020: peak COVID era. A small 21st birthday party devolved, quite accidentally, into a bit of a super spreader event—contextual footnote for the global audience: lockdown worked differently in rural Ohio. And by that I mean that after May 2020, there was no lockdown, so no laws were broken here. The consequence however? My two roommates and I spent our Thanksgiving break sealed inside a tiny house, violently ill and unbelievably bored.
One delirious November afternoon, we found ourselves on Netflix clicking into a Christmas miniseries called Dash & Lily. The premise was suspiciously on-the-nose: two awkward New York teenagers, home alone for the holidays, communicating only through a shared notebook they left in public places for the other to retrieve. Instead of therapy or emotional availability, they choose emotionally intimate scavenger hunts across a snow-covered New York City, exchanging letters without ever making eye contact in real life. Unhinged coping mechanism, impeccable narrative device. We were hooked.
The show delivers peak cozy energy without trying too hard: bookish vulnerabilities, winter’s soft glow, a city romance that thrives on distance instead of proximity, and characters that make awkwardness look aspirational. If you need a few hours of distraction or proof that emotionally perilous notebook exchanges can still end in love, check it out this holiday season.
LISTEN
Teodora is listening to the Modern Love podcast.
Yearly, before Christmas rolls around, I find the time to rewatch Love Actually, one of my all time favourite rom-coms. And yearly, without fail, I find myself pondering my favourite line from the film, which also just so happens to be the opening line. The Prime Minister, played by Hugh Grant at his dreamiest, muses:
‘Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the Arrivals Gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinion’s starting makes out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don’t see that. Seems to me that love is everywhere. Often it’s not particularly dignified, or newsworthy – but it’s always there – fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. Before the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know, none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate and revenge – they were all messages of love. If you look for it, I’ve got a sneaky feeling you’ll find that love actually is all around.‘
I think of that often throughout the year and it never fails to echo in my mind louder than when I’m listening to Modern Love, New York Times’ beloved podcast. Each episode explores love of all kinds, in all of its maddening complexity. From couples finding each other in unexpected ways to platonic bonds that transcend countries and sometimes, even death, it’s impossible not to find a topic that hits close to home. The podcast is based on the eponymous column, which is a veritable archive of love and which I highly recommend as well. The essays are usually read out by famous guests or the writers themselves, something that is followed by a conversation with Anna Martin, the excellent host of Modern Love. This podcast is a space of acceptance and vulnerability, and as a listener, it often feels like by the end of the episode, you carry a part of the story too.
So, this holiday season, I urge you to remember that the world may be ugly, but it is also undeniably full of love. If you are rushing around for Christmas gifts, or to get to yet another holiday party, or maybe you are feeling alone, give Modern Love a try. I think you will be reminded that love truly is all around.
DO
Aleli is all for starting a holiday tradition.
Growing up in the Philippines (where the holiday countdown starts in September), the holidays were always a super festive and busy time. In our family, it was also full of traditions—from putting up the big star-shaped light by the front door, hearing the midnight mass for a couple nights in a row, to getting specific foods and fruits of specific shapes to be consumed on specific days.
I participated in these traditions because that was how we did things in our house, but I can’t say that I cared for them much. It was also probably that I didn’t believe in the religious and/or superstitious roots of these traditions. So, when I moved out in my 20s, none of these holiday traditions came with me. I didn’t think I’d ever miss them until I was in my mid-30s in a child-free household, living on a completely different continent.
I realized that people love traditions because they make you feel like you’re part of something, and that that something matters. I also realized that you can absolutely create traditions that don’t conflict with your beliefs.
So, maybe mail a holiday letter to your loved ones. Have cake and hot chocolate in bed with your partner on Christmas morning. Watch a non-Hollywood holiday film on Zoom with your friends abroad. Get creative. Consider what the holidays truly mean to you.
And enjoy that feeling of being the one who starts a tradition that you can pass on.
INDULGE
Teodora is really into shopping independent & second hand.
While December may be the most magical month of the year, it is also a black pit for rampant consumerism. Millions and millions all over the world are chasing the perfect gifts for their loved ones, and oftentimes, in that race against the clock-and against the pressure we place on ourselves- we overcompensate by buying too much or we go for the most convenient options, usually mass produced chain store products.
I too fall into this trap, because let’s be serious, while we want the best for our family and friends, we also just want to get it over with. To counteract this, I’ve set a challenge for myself over the past couple of years: only buy presents from independent and small businesses, or second hand. And while I would be a hypocrite to say I’ve always succeeded in this task, I’ve come to realise how fun it can be to search for the perfect gift sustainably.
The world (and specifically the Internet) is full of treasures- it may just take a while to find them. It is also a great way of ensuring that the independent business sector survives and that artists, craftspeople and creatives of all kinds get paid fairly for their work. As for shopping second hand, I get a particular kind of satisfaction from scouring Vinted, Ebay and charity shops and coming across an item that instantly makes me think of somebody in my life. It also doesn’t hurt to remind ourselves that we can all play a little part in trying to heal our planet and not add to the landfill crisis we are facing.
So, if you are still on the lookout for the perfect gifts, maybe don’t pop in the first mall you see. Instead, take 30 minutes of your day to find an alternative option. Who knows, maybe in the process, you’ll also find a bit of that old Christmas magic that seems to have dissipated over the years.
Contributions by Julie Antropova, Lauren Powell, Gretchen Blackwell, Teodora Strugaru & Aleli Mesina.
Curated & edited by Teodora Strugaru.
