I know I promised you a newsletter this week that would give you the rest of my Favs of 2025. I’ll share a few more below, but I’d like to take a slight detour and talk about holiday gift guides.

I had an entire conversation about what I’m calling the Holiday Gift Guide Industrial Complex on the show this week. It seems we’ve hit our internet peak of these things: every writer I love makes one or more. Every news outlet I still read creates several. The lists are longer, the reviews more detailed, the pressure to consume them all and buy all the things they suggest is higher than ever (at least for me).

When I asked Avery Trufelman, host of my favorite fashion podcast, Articles of Interest, to come on the show and discuss her latest season, this is what she wanted to talk about first. “It’s [the holiday gift guide] become this capstone at the end of the year,” she told me. “Now it’s like a different form of year in review.”

After noting just how much of a behemoth gift guide culture has become, our gripes were manifold: Do people use these things to buy gifts for others? Or just to find cool things for themselves (which is fine either way, I guess)? Are these meant more to prove the writer’s good taste than to solve your Christmas? And my biggest complaint: If we do all our shopping for the holidays through holiday gift guides, have we totally depersonalized something that’s supposed to be incredibly personal?

I think of all of Christmas as a series of stories of what I call The Hunt, or The Quest. Every story we tell ourselves during the holiday season is tied to this idea. Joseph and Mary, searching for a place to have their baby? That was a hunt, a quest. Every Hallmark movie where the woman from the big city goes to a small town to reinvent herself and also find love in the process? That’s a quest? Home Alone is a quest. A lot of your favorite Christmas songs? About a quest. Hear me out: When I am trying to find Christmas gifts for my favorite loved ones, I kinda want it to be a quest as well.

I want to ask for recommendations from my friends. I want to talk with strangers in obscure Reddit threads about the best version of a thing to get. I want to go to multiple stores and chat with whoever’s working there about the gift. I want to hold several versions of the thing in my hand first. I want a quest.

I know. I say all this with all the privilege that comes with being a childless adult with disposable income and a lot of free time.

Towards the end of our conversation, I asked Avery how we’d go about fixing Holiday Gift Guide culture. She said she wanted some that had more ideas in them, and not just hyperlinks. “Like, ‘Here’s my favorite engraver in New York City if you want to go get something engraved, and here’s a good idea for how to use wrapping paper.’”

If I were in charge of all the gift guides, I’d just make them hyperlocal. The writer writes the gift guide for the place they are in, and every recommendation is for somewhere people can go to look for and find gifts IRL, by interacting with people IRL. I’ll make a full list next year, but in the meantime, three more of my favorite things in 2025: a trio of great destinations in Los Angeles where you can get a really good Christmas gift in person. They are all food-related because I believe in giving loved ones good food. Next, I promise, the rest of my Best of 2025.

The mole kits at Guelaguetza
I’ve gifted loved ones mole paste from Gueleguetza before, and it’s always blown the recipient away, as well as given us a reason to get together soon — to make said mole. I recommend going to the restaurant to pick out the mole kit yourself, and then staying for a meal and maybe even some live music if you have the time. A weeknight at Gueluegetza when the music is popping truly feels like an LA lifehack: it feels like you’ve snuck into a neighbor’s backyard party, only with much better food.

All the baked goods at Fleurs et Sel
These cookies are good enough to be illegal. This place often sells out, so go on the early side and have a nice chat with the owner, Lara Adekoya, who is often in the store.

Tea Habitat in Alhambra
My favorite food critic, Bill Addison, wrote a wonderful essay about this place a few years ago. Imen Shan only opens up the tiny shop after you call ahead and set a time for a visit. Once you enter, you’re surrounded by hundreds if not thousands of tea types, and you’re getting sized up by Shan. When I’ve gone in, she’s asked how I’m doing, what I’m looking for, what’s been going on in my life — and then she’s matched me with the perfect tea. I’ve gone to her for teas after heartbreak, teas after death. It’s a little bit of a therapy session, and a history lesson (on tea) as well. Highly recommend.

If you made it this far, two things: My Friday episode this week is a chat with Grammy-winning jazz singer Samara Joy. We talk about growing up as church kids, and she sings a fair amount. I think you’ll love it. And secondly, what are your thoughts on gift guides, and where’s your favorite place to buy holiday gifts in the flesh? I’m curious.

Happy weekend!
-Sam

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