Starting Over? These 6 Gifts Feel Like Home.

New York Times

a day ago

In this edition of The Gift, we're talking about the value of a gift that feels like home — especially during times of uncertainty. Plus, tapered candles to elevate any table.
Recently, I chatted with LA-based cookbook author Molly Baz, who, for the past six months, has been rebuilding after losing her house to the Altadena fire. For Molly, the experience has been clarifying: When you're starting over, stuff that feels like you, even small things, can go far — grounding you in the moment, reassuring your senses, restoring a feeling of home.
While speaking with her, I was brought back to my own time of rebuilding, when my marriage ended. I have a distinct memory of ferrying boxes of my old life over the threshold of my new apartment. Once I'd unpacked, it was at once startling and comforting to look around and see my old life surrounding me in this new one.
As I rebuilt my routines, I was relieved to touch these objects and feel them in my hand. A mug that for years held my morning coffee. A tall glass, its curves catching the light, reminding me to drink water. A sunny Dutch oven, promising bounty. And my books, like bricks to build a new home. These things reassured me when my sense of self felt brittle and strange.
There are some special heirlooms that follow you throughout life, even when life itself looks uncertain or unfamiliar. And I've found that gifting or re-gifting them — to loved ones or to yourself — can sometimes help provide a surprising sense of grounding during whatever sort of rebuilding life throws our way: These LA-designed, Japan-made mugs were crucial staples of Molly Baz's breakfast routine, and among the first things she restocked after the fires. They're the perfect size for lattes and cappuccinos, and are both modular and stackable. Says Molly: 'I remember getting those Hasami mugs and being like … my morning feels right again.'
This buy-it-for-life watering can produces a steady flow that's perfect for reaching a plant's roots, and develops a lovely patina over time. As Wirecutter writer Jackie Reeve says, 'You can keep a Haws can for decades because it works so well and looks so good as it ages.'
Head of newsletters Sofia Sokolove says that this eyecatching mesh fruit bowl, gifted to her after a breakup nearly a decade ago, has fit perfectly as a colorful centerpiece in each of her three kitchens since. She loves its versatile shape and size, and how a bright orange or banana looks peeking through the mesh.
Another restock for Molly: This luxe candle, which had been in every room of the old house, filling the space — and now the rooms in her new home — with notes of cedar, birchwood, smoke, and musk.
For anyone celebrating a new home or honoring an old one — newlyweds, downsizers, college grads, or first-apartment dwellers — our gifts experts recommend this custom house portrait. Just submit a high-res photo of the house, and choose the right medium: watercolors, oils, what have you. The result? An eminently charming, accurate, and instant heirloom piece of artwork.
Brighten bookshelves or side tables with this petite Bartlett pear vase, complete with a leafy green accent. As we put it in our guide to the best housewarming gifts: 'Aesthetic loveliness aside, pears symbolize beneficent abundance, an ideal sentiment for friends christening a new home.' How lovely.
Big, disruptive changes are doorways you're forced to walk through. A major move. Parenthood. Disaster. Loss. Illness. Divorce. We have no way of knowing what will unfold on the other side, or how to reconstruct ourselves into the same-but-different person we need to be. In such moments, things won't save us. But it would also be wrong to say they don't matter. A potted plant roots us in a moment of care and beauty. A platter urges us to invite friends over. A spatula reminds us of our competence. The things we gravitate toward might be clues to the life we want now. Maybe even the life we need. Why not follow them?