2025 Spiers Gift Guide Extravaganza!
I might as well, right?
I taught my second creative practice workshop yesterday and think it went really well. I recommended a lot of the tools and strategies that I use myself, including a lot of physical objects that would make good gifts. So at the risk of cliché, here’s my 2025 Gift Guide. (I’m not getting any kind of affiliate fee for any of this; these are just things I like and recommend.)
- First things first: Marisa Kabas has a great gift guide for supporting independent journalism that includes my personal favorite, The Barbed Wire. If you’re in NYC, I’m also a big fan of Hell Gate, which is not on the list, but has a little bit of SPY magazine and alt weekly DNA and is doing important work covering things like NYCHA, which has sort of fallen by the wayside at many of the NYC dailies.
- On the physical stuff front: My analog note taking system lives in a size A5 Summit Notebook from Lucrin that I love. It allows me to carry multiple slim notebooks for different purposes and my Kindle fits perfectly in the interior pocket. If you want a nice romantic French version of this, Louise Carmen makes this kind of journal/notebook too, with little charms you can add if you’re fancy like that. Paper Republic also makes heavily customizable leather portfolios that are a bit more affordable.
- One of the things I recommend in my creative practice workshop is finding a way to add creative play to your process that’s not writing–ideally something tactile. I like drawing, doodling, etc., because it’s easy and portable and I don’t feel the pressure to be particularly good at it or to commercialize it in some way. I carry around a little set of 10 Caran d’Ache Neocolor II “crayons” that are water soluble, so you can draw with them and use them as watercolors. They’re pricey, though. I also recommend to workshop participants that they try working with art supplies that kids use because it’ll get them out of the mindset that whatever they’re doing has to be professional and good. I got this idea from Lynda Barry’s book, SYLLABUS, which is based on the class she teaches on interdisciplinary creativity at the University of Wisconsin Madison. She has her students work with things like copy paper and regular crayons.
- From Barry: “Students are surprised by how long it takes to color something in: crayons are hard to work with. They are also embarrassed to be seen coloring and this embarrassment is something I want them to wonder about. What’s the source of it? Why is it there?” Along those lines, I also recommend a copy of Barry’s book SYLLABUS and a decadent-to-your-inner-7-year-old box of 64 Crayola Crayons. Or go crazy and get the 120 Crayon box.
- I think about what Mary Karr calls “carnality” in the context of creativity, and it’s basically any kind of sensory experience. Which brings us to food and drink! This is a good hilariously packaged mustard-y hot sauce that is fantastic on eggs. I never liked okra growing up because my mom liked to boil it and it gets slimy when you do that, but I love Rick’s Picks Smokra pickles; they’re just the right amount of spicy and all crunch, no slime. I like anything that’s pickled but not sweet, so also recommend Amish Country’s dill pickle popcorn seasoning.
- I enjoy cooking and have very particular spice preferences. The best turmeric comes from Diaspora Co and I also like their black mustard seeds for making Kenji Lopez Alt’s Channa Masala recipe. These Afghan wild cumin seeds from Curio Co are amazing and adding them to a little oil before you start sauteeing your onions or shallots or garlic will improve a lot of savory dishes by a million percent–empirically speaking, of course. There is a big difference between good Mexican oregano and regular dried oregano you typically find on the average grocery store shelf. Rancho Gordo has the good stuff.
- Booze-y gifts: My favorite Spanish red is a Lopez de Heredia Vina Tondonia, but all of their wines are reliably good, and if you can find one of their aged white riojas, it’ll be like nothing you’ve ever tasted.
- Winter is my least favorite season, mostly because I have low tolerance for being cold. So I am doubling down on being cozy and warm this year and my first priority is finding a nice housecoat / robe so I can get in touch with my inner Lebowski and hibernate until Spring. This is the only thing I’m recommending that I do not own because I just love the idea of this company. Meet Highway Robery, an Austin based company that uses deadstock materials to make robes (including mini robes for your Barbies and Kens), and has a delightful approach to product photography.
- Also re: coziness - I have become, against my will, a scented candle person. Turns out I like it when things smell good. Most of the time this means I grab something at Target in the $5 range, but my higher end “special occasion” candle is Brooklyn Candle’s Marrakech. It’s sandalwood-y, but not overpowering. Feels winter-y, even, but doesn’t smell like Santa’s garage.
_____________________
Thanks for reading and supporting my work this year. I always appreciate it, and it helps keep the 10-year-old in Pokemon cards and Takis and the rest of us in boring old health insurance. It’s been a kind of rough year, work-wise, and reader support has mitigated some of the making-ends-meet stress. Thank you for that!
Also: I’ve added new opinion workshop dates for 2026. There’s an early bird discount for signing up before January 1st, and I’ll be adding new workshops for personal essay and creative practice development soon.
Happily Holidays!
Elizabeth