HOLIDAY
GIFT GUIDE
HUFFINGTON
11.18.12
EDITOR LETTER
ing on at HuffPost: stress. “We
have so much stress around buying gifts,” he says. “It has become
transactional, and we’ve lost the
emotional aspects, the ritual.”
So, we hope the Huffington gift
guide will be a stress-reducing
way to shop for the ones you love.
Part of the joy of browsing the
guide is its mix of familiar items
and new discoveries. I gravitated
to the ostrich pillow (don’t worry,
it’s not made of ostrich feathers!),
the “library-scented” reading
candle and the online yoga classes. And I learned about “Story,”
a concept store in my own neighborhood, Chelsea, which changes
its merchandise and decor every
four to eight weeks in order to
tell a different story—“a magazine
that comes to life,” as owner Rachel Shechtman puts it.
Most of all, we hope our gift
guide will provide perspective—
something we can all use, especially at this time of year. As part
of our commitment to going beyond the frenzy of gift-giving and
understanding where those gifts
come from, we feature the voice
of Sushila Ashok, an artisan from
western India whose crafts are
sold by fair trade companies each
year. “I start working at 9:30, doing embroidery work until 5:30,
and then I go back home with
the children and cook food, wash
clothes and do household work,”
says Ashok, who works for a nonprofit devoted to paying artisans a
livable wage. And those who want
to give back this holiday season will find
a variety of charities
and funds, from relief for veterans and
victims of Hurricane
Sandy to abandoned
pets and hospitalized
children in need of
toys and books.
So, happy holidays
from all of us at Huffington. Growing up in
Athens, I looked forward each year to the
holidays, when my
mother would bake melomakarona, the traditional Greek Christmas cookies. I hope the Huffington gift guide will become
a holiday tradition, too.
We hope
our gift guide
will provide
perspective—
something
we can all
use, especially
at this time
of year.”
ARIANNA