For the 2022 holiday season, Avenue insiders share their picks for what their planning to give (and receive). Click here to find more of curated gift guides from our favorite personalities.
The one thing that star chef Angie Mar can’t conjure in the kitchen is more time for gift-wrapping. “My family has a knack for knowing what’s in the box before it’s even picked up, so we spend hours devising ways to wrap boxes inside of boxes and making everything as unidentifiable as possible,” she says. “It’s absolute excess, but I adore excess.”
The holidays are tremendously important to Mar, who rarely gets time off from running her restaurant, Les Trois Chevaux. But that doesn’t mean she stops cooking. “On Christmas Eve we always have a light dinner, but the most important for us is Christmas morning,” she says of how her family celebrates. “There are specific dishes we make, traditions that have been handed down by our father. Dinner is always a wonderful affair — a potluck with the entire family. We all have our signature dishes that we bring. It’s often a bit competitive with the cuisine, but all in fun.”
Below, Mar suggests some of her favorite gifts to give over the holidays.
“I love Byredo and use it in the washrooms of Les Trois Chevaux,” she says. “It’s really nice to be able to give people something that reminds them of your place, for their own home. I find that people always love this gift because it’s such a small luxury that we take for granted.”
“It might seem a bit thoughtless in the Western world to give an envelope of cash as a holiday gift, but in my culture, it’s rude not to!” Mar explains: “for Chinese New Year, Christmas, weddings, birthdays, there is usually a red envelope stuffed with cash.”
