What I got for Christmas

Posted on by Julie

Let’s go back to 2014 and do a “what I got for Christmas haul”! I’m not sure I’ve ever done this but I wanted to do something festive and I don’t think I have enough material from the Reykjavik Christmas market. So let’s take a look at what sort-of travel- and outdoor-related things popped up in my stocking yesterday.

Soap leaves

First up, a little case of soap leaves, which don’t count towards your liquid allowance and hardly weigh anything at all. I’m slowly converting my entire travel wash kit to non-liquid so it looks like this might be replacing the sliver of soap I rescued from a hotel in Amsterdam in 2018 and has been my “just in case” ever since. Not pictured: I also have a set of the softest pastel-coloured reusable cloth pads and some microfibre face cloths.

Warm socks

A pair of socks folded in half so you can see the green grippy stars on the bottom of one and the green stars and half of the word JOY on the other (the other half of JOY is on the side of the sock that's upside down).

I’m not sure it’s practical to wear these inside shoes or boots but I love to have warm feet and also, you need some clothes to protect you from being eaten by the Christmas Cat – and warm feet that aren’t going to slip on the kitchen floor!

Thermal top

A bright blue long-sleeved thermal top with a slightly scooped neck.

I was just looking the other day for colourful clothes to wear in Iceland, having realised that in winter, I’m mostly in blacks and in summer, often in greys and browns, so I made a point of packing all the most colourful stuff I own. All my thermal tops are either black or grey so I wanted to find some colourful tops and what popped up yesterday but a thermal top in sky blue! (Having looked at my pictures from Iceland, I’ve discovered that there’s no point in colourful thermals and t-shirts when your coat is black, so you can’t really tell that I did acquire a yellow thermal top which I wore for at least half the week).

Ships of Heaven by Christopher Somerville

Ships of Heaven by Christopher Somerville, a paperback book with a view across a field towards a cathedral in shades of blue and yellow.

This is a book you’re going to see on Travel Library at some point. I went into a bookshop, took the back stairs rather than the front ones and walked into the architecture department rather than the travel section, where I fell in love with three church books in a row. This one, I think, is a tour around the country via cathedrals, a bit like Steeple Chasing but with cathedrals instead of churches.

Tiny Churches by Dixe Wills

Tiny Churches by Dixe Wills, a hardback book with the cover of the end of a church on it. The stained glass window is actually on the cover of the book itself which shows the altar and the inside of the church.

The second of the church books. This one is about tiny churches all over the country, more a random guidebook than a narrative but it’s so beautiful. The one I picked up in the bookshop was a paperback but this one’s a hardback. The cover is the exterior of the church and the stained glass windows are actually on the book itself, visible through intricate cut-outs on the cover. Underneath, the book itself has an image of the inside of the church, with an altar underneath the window.

Church Going by Andrew Ziminski

Church Going by Andrew Ziminski, a hardback book with a cartoon of various church architecture in bright colours on it.

The third of the church books – this one is more about the architecture of churches in general rather than stories or details of specific churches, presumably from the point of view of a stonemason, and I’m looking forward to finding out about all the details.

Life on Svalbard by Cecilia Blomdahl

A large hardback coffee table book called Life on Svalbard by Cecilia Blomdahl. A figure, probably Cecilia, wearing a yellow coat, is sitting on the side of a snowy mountain overlooking a small settlement while the Northern Lights arc overhead.

I’ve watched Cecilia’s YouTube channel for years – she lives on Svalbard and showcases life on an island near the North Pole. This is a big beautiful coffee table book full of pictures from Svalbard both in its snowy glory in the dark of winter and in its floral glory in the eternal light of summer.

Tomato earrings

A pair of hoop earrings with wood & resin tomatoes hanging from them, lying on a pink cotton bag.

Last and not travel-related, are these tomato earrings. They come with the hoops and the charms separately, so I had the earrings last year and some tomato and radish charms and this year I asked for some tomatoes to put on them. There are many ways to enjoy the outdoors – outdoor blogs and Instagram etc tend towards the hiking and camping end of the spectrum but gardening is a perfectly valid way to appreciate the fresh air and so if these aren’t travel-related, they are at least outdoors-related.

And that’s my Christmas haul! On Monday comes my annual review of the year and then in 2025 I’ve got the tales of my trip to Iceland, the rest of Budapest and whatever adventures come my way next year.

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