Of course Gwyneth Paltrow is really, really good at Christmas. It’s almost as if the holiday exists so Gwynnie can create new recipes, monogram some homemade cheeseboards, and just really go to Goop Town. She’s the best at it, and she wants you to be the best, too. Well, not the best because that’s her space, but either way, she shared her aspirational yuletide secrets with InStyle.
For Paltrow, the enduring love for Christmas started when she was a child, not even as tall as the stack of presents she got from her mom and dad: “I remember being probably about 4 years old and coming down and my presents were so tall, they were taller than I was. It was this incredible moment where Santa Claus had brought me all of these presents and it was the most astounding thing to have a mountain of presents that was taller than myself,” she said.
Now Paltrow, who might actually still believe in Santa, hopes to recreate those warm memories for everyone else.
She starts shopping about “two months early,” to allow time, of course, to get really personal with her gifts. In past years, friends and family have received “beautiful handmade cutting boards, everyone in the family’s name was engraved on one side.”She’s also given “ceramic plates” and “jewelery all with initials.”
Well, now that we’ve got gifts covered (get excited for those ceramic plates, friends!), Paltrow offers up some style advice for that age-old quandary of what wear to the many holiday parties: black jumpsuits! According to her, the LBJ is “always very easy because then you don’t have to think about much else.” Gwyneth, with her festive black jumpsuits and macrobiotic figgy pudding, might just wrestle the I’m the Best at Christmas title away from another blonde domestic doyenne.
