A Box of Little Treats

Christmas Gift Guide, Part 1

Pull Up A Chair is a weekly newsletter containing all the things I’d like to be chatting about if we could hang out together in real life. Every week, I start with three things I’ve enjoyed, and then write in more detail about something I’ve been thinking about. 

• 🛍️ Kelham Print Eras Collection. You know I’m a Swiftie, and that I love ‘low-key’ symbols of my fandom (I even spoke to the lovely Emily Cronin for a magazine article she wrote on the subject). I’ve been a fan of Nicola’s work at Kelham Print for a while, and so when she launched her Eras collection, I clicked through immediately. She has this gorgeous All Too Well design (on both a tee and a sweatshirt) for Red girlies, but with the 1989 re-release filling up every single nerve ending lately, I had to go with the Out of the Woods sweater. Everything is made to order, so if you want to give something from her website for Christmas, make your orders now!

• 📕 Beat The Budget by Mimi Harrison. A while ago, I came across Mimi (Emily)’s work on Instagram and loved her straightforward, tasty recipes. I pre-ordered her cookbook and have been steadily working my way through it, sometimes making extra tweaks to my own taste. Her fishfinger burritos with guacamole became burrito bowls with houmous for me, and I made the tomato and sausage risotto with veggie sausages, but both were super delicious and really easy. (Bookshop.org | Amazon - ad, affiliate links)

• 🍪 Choccie Dodgers. For non-UK readers, first, a little context: Jammie Dodgers are a staple ‘sandwich biscuit’ in UK. This sentence in the Wikipedia article made me smile: In 2009, Jammie Dodgers were the most popular children's sweet biscuit brand in the United Kingdom, with 40% of the year's sales consumed by adults. I found these ‘Choccie Dodgers’ in a corner shop this week and was extremely sceptical - but they’re delicious. Like the jammie version, they’re vegan, which is always good for hosting.

  

   

As I mentioned above, it’s Christmas shopping season! This is part 1 of the two-part gift guide I’ll be putting together. This week: Little boxes of treats. Next week: Book-and-chocolate pairings. The things I do for you all 😉. 

If you’re anywhere near my part of TikTok, you might have heard of ‘Little treat’ culture; “ it’s basically the phenomenon of indulging in small, inexpensive pleasures as a way to get a much-needed boost of happiness and satisfaction.” It overlaps with my preferred way to put together birthday and Christmas presents: buy a nicer version of something than people would buy themselves, to make their everyday lives a little more luxurious or easier. Even nicer to have a curated set of things that add up to an experience. 

For Egg Lovers

I truly believe that a perfect boiled egg is one of life’s most indulgent pleasures. For anyone on your gift list who thinks the same:

• Eddington’s ‘Egg Perfect’ egg timer; this is a small plastic thing shaped like an egg, with a flat base, which you pop in the saucepan with your eggs. It changes colour as the eggs cook. Never again worry about whether you’re supposed to start with cold or hot water - this is a real game changer.

• Joseph Joseph Scoop Plus; I’ve raved about my desert-island kitchen utensil before. One of its best uses is for lifting boiled eggs out of the water without bringing any of the hot water with them. Trust me.  

• A nice egg cup; at a premium price point Le Creuset or Emma Bridgewater have gorgeous options, but I also love this ‘a dippy egg’ one from East of India, which will leave you change from a fiver. Or for extra points, a Thomas the Tank Engine egg cup (which I’m horrified to discover is now being sold as ‘vintage’) will make any nerdy millennial’s day.

  

  Photo from Temptation Gifts

For Bathers

We all know someone whose happy place is standing under a hot shower or soaking in a bath, turning themself into human soup. They’ll love to find these with a ribbon around them: