Sexy reads and fancy gifts to turn you on this festive season

Ed's Letter | Holidays, celebrate

If you are reading this, it is too late. The magazine has gone to print, you’re paging through it with a coffee — and every single Business Day reader will soon know that I wrote this listening to Boney M.

Yes, as I type, Mariah Carey’s All I Want for Christmas has just finished playing. Now, “long time ago in Bethlehem…” is blasting through my MacBook speakers. Given this magazine’s undying devotion to all things chic, I know you were absolutely expecting to read that.

The thing is, for all my liking of the more refined things in life, come December, I morph into a festive cheese ball. Up goes the tree — dripping in decorations, some of which I made at nursery school even. On goes the appalling, shopping centre-style festive playlist. And out come the Christmas bauble earrings. It is a horrific show of tacky, gaudy, saccharine holiday silliness. And I love it — because I know that it also means chilling in perfect Joburg when everyone else has departed for St Francis, long boozy lunches with those who’ve remained, and lots of book reading, sleeping late, and family time.

Sure we’ll turn on each other at some point (probably in the world’s longest Woolies queue on the 24th), we’ll all feel like stuffed turkeys on the 26th — but keep eating, and have a massive anticlimax of a New Year. But damn, I’m looking forward to the holidays. And I’m sure you are too. It’s been a tough year — and, frankly, everyone is feeling a bit shot. Between the dodgy rand, listeriosis, VBS, Brexit, the Zondo Commission, and Trumpelstiltskin, it has been intense and we all need a break.

So, I hope you’re gearing up for yours. And that this issue will be part of it. It’s a grand mix of sexy reads, fancy gifts, and the usual smart stuff to turn you on. It also includes Zodwa Kumalo’s Wanted holiday playlist, which you can download on Spotify. It features no Boney M, I promise.

Feliz Navidad,
Sarah

AND ANOTHER THING...

Large-scale philanthropy is classy. But even if you’re not starting your own foundation, there’s still loads you can do to get stuck in — especially at this time of the year. There are big projects to support, as lovely art advisor Kholisa Thomas does with Ubuntu Pathways in Port Elizabeth. It provides afterschool care for vulnerable kids, and is a great cause.

Then there’s the Bethany Children’s Home in Soweto — a Salvation Army outfit that’s a wonderful place of safety; Paballa ya Batho, which runs a soup kitchen on Empire Road every Wednesday; the Westbury Youth Centre, which provides really important skills development in that community; and Tiny Paws, a volunteer organisation that cares for rescued small-breed dogs. And, of course, there are the heavy-hitters such as Gift of the Givers and Hospice that you can easily donate to. They’re all just a microscopic sample of the many charities that need our help. Why not get involved?