Christmas Gifting Guide with Exclusive Discounts for You

My favourite Greek gifts for the lovers, mothers and closest people in your life this Xmas

Buongiorno a Tutti from Milano,

It’s decidedly more Christmassy here than in Athens. Twinkling lights blink out from the tram lined streets leading to the Duomo and the weather here calls for cosy nights in wine bars (Osteria alla Concorrenza is my new favourite) and plenty of comforting risotto dishes. It’s also time we begin thinking about gifting so I’ve rounded up my favourite makes, artists and producers in Greece for the gift guide below. Many of them (almost all of them are friends!) have provided me with special discounts just for you - my subscribers. Please do take advantage of them this week!

This year will be our third year with Calypso and though I already adored the festive period (gifting, hosting and feeding are my love languages), it has taken on greater significance in my life since having a child. The passing on of traditions is very important to me and so I take decorating the tree, singing Christmas Carols, setting out a mince pie and carrot for Santa and his reindeer very seriously.

I’ve been cooking Christmas lunch since I was a teenager when my parents realised that my brother and I got so much more out of preparing the food than they did. Even now, a month in advance of the day, I’m planning my Christmas menu and most of my gifts are safely stored away in a hiding place I won’t reveal on this newsletter because my man subscribes to it!

If you’re still pondering on what to treat the loved ones in your life to, I’m sharing a few ideas below in my Christmas Gifting Guide for 2024. I’m celebrating my favourite Greek artists, producers and makers in this year’s guide. Whether its foodie gifts grown on Greek terrain or jewellery designed and made in Athens, there’s a gift in this one for everyone.

After you’ve ticked off everyone on your Christmas list, you can scroll down for Abuela Ninette’s elegant (and easy!) Orange and Cinnamon sorbet recipe from Mallorca, a little preview of the recipes in my upcoming book, Mediterranea.

1. Yiayia: Time-perfected Recipes and Stories from Greece’s Grandmothers

I hope that if you like my weekly newsletter and enjoy what I do on instagram that you might (if you haven’t already!) consider buying yourself or your food-loving friends a copy of my book, Yiayia. It’s full of beautiful portraiture of the grandmothers of Greece as well as recipes that epitomise my culinary heritage. Beyond this, the stories, life-lessons and wisdom of the grandmothers in this book are unmissable and heartwarming in equal measure.

2. 15% off bespoke, one off pieces of jewellery from Athens-based Potamos Studio

I love Nadia’s silver totems all inspired by life in Greece. The Catch of the Day fish charms are ones I wear daily and can be worn as a pendant in an ode to life on the Mediterranean. Just message Nadia on her instagram account if you’d like to buy anything and mention you came to her via me to claim your 15% discount.

3. Upto 20% discount on Doors of Kypseli Screen print poster and art book by Eleanor Lines

Based in my neighbourhood of Kypseli in which beautiful wrought iron doors from the Neoclassical, bauhaus and post-war period are proliferous, Kypseli Print Studio is a screen printing art studio ran by artist Eleanor Lines. This year she published a beautiful hardback art book ‘The Doors of Kypseli’ and accompanying individually screen printed poster. This is a beautiful gift for any Athens / architecture / design aficionado.

Save 20% on Doors of Kypseli Screen printed poster 100cm x 70cm with the code DISCOUNT124 (the offer runs for one week)

https://www.kypseliprintstudio.com/shop/p/screen-printed-poster

Save 10% on Doors of Kypseli Book with code DISCOUNT125 (the offer runs for one week)

https://www.kypseliprintstudio.com/shop/p/doorsofkypselibook

4. 25% discount on Swim to the Moon jewellery, made in Athens

Another dear friend of mine, Stefani Stoyanof (wife of the brilliant Marco who photographs my cookbooks) is the designer and maker behind Swim to the Moon jewellery. Contemporary jewellery pieces, from statement necklaces to chunky rings - all with a raw and organic finish, inspired by life on the Greek islands.

Claim a 25% discount this week with the code JOLLY 25 on Stefani’s website.

5. It’s a Shirt - re-purposed fabrics used for smart tailoring, made in Athens

Based in the down-town neighbourhood of Exarcheia, It’s a Shirt was born out of a father-daughter collaboration between my friend Christina and Konstantinos Christodoulou. Raised in the port town of Piraeus, Christina was exposed to the family garment workshop from a young age. “My father had been making clothes for 30 years,” says Christina. “Greece used to be huge in garment manufacturing but this all changed when everyone started producing in China instead.” Their Athens-based studio is now dedicated to unisex shirts and smart tailoring, made using vintage and dead stock fabrics sourced in Greece. If you want to support small businesses this Christmas, this is one Greek brand you should be aware of.

6. 10% off Honest Toil Olive Oil from Kyparissia with the coolest packaging for gifting

For the food loving friends in your life, a tin of Extra Virgin from Honest Toil. Of all the brands of olive oil I’ve had the pleasure of sampling in recent years, I adore the smooth taste of this one. The duo behind it are - as the branding implies - good, hardworking people that give back and support their local community in Kyparissia. The illustrations on the packaging also make this a brilliant option for gifting. Use the code YIAYIA for a 10% discount on the Honest Toil website.

7. Stefani & Irini, hand-painted ceramics from Athens

Athenian makers Stefani and Irini have a studio just round the corner from my house. They’re based in a beautiful neoclassical building in Kypseli and make hand-painted earthenware that really sings of my city. I feel like every piece manages to combine the old and new aesthetic of Athens, presenting a dialogue between its ancient history and dynamic, chaotic and energetic present. I’m currently coveting the vases and serving plates.

8. 25% off Weaving workshops with Maria Sigma

Maria Sigma is a maker and artist based between Athens and London. She is preserving the ancient Greek art of weaving and makes beautiful hand spun pieces on a loom in Athens. As well as crafting, she now runs workshops in order to share the art and proliferate the skills that risk being lost forever were it not for people like Maria. She ran a brilliant weaving workshop for my Corfu retreat this year which she does at various points throughout the year. She also has a brilliant online course on her website, available to purchase with 25% off from tomorrow.

9. Unsung Weavers - very special, statement outerwear from Greek mountain villages

Athenian designer and maker Elina Tseliagkou was inspired to start Unsung Weavers, her men’s and women’s fashion label, when she came across a great aunt’s long-forgotten dowry. In the Greece of her aunt’s day, brides would receive hand woven fabrics that became blankets for the marital bed. “So many of these fabrics are left in drawers and forgotten about,” says Tseliagkou. She then began a quest to hunt down similar textiles, which are usually hand made by Greek weavers and water-proofed. They then place them on the river bed or out in the rain to take on a felted finish. 

“These materials carry the labour of each of the weavers,” adds Tseliakgou. “The making process can take days or weeks, so I wanted to give them new life.” She now designs utilitarian, oversized outerwear from these heavy blankets. Each coat and blazer is different from the last, thanks to the varying blankets she sources from mountain villages in remote parts of Greece. The one unifying trait is the folk fabrics that tell the stories of the weavers who once spun them.

unsungweavers.com

10. The Greece Notebook by Artist Michael McGregor

Super special and dear to my heart because Michael drew most of the illustrations in this book while he spent a summer in my Corfu town flat, The Greece Notebook is a great little gift for any Greece lover. Michael’s book is a collection of “point and click” drawings – each made in a flash, to emulate snapshots on a disposable camera while on holiday. Each rendering was created during a 3 month journey around Greece in 2022.

Happy shopping!

Below is a recipe from Abuela Ninette and a sneak preview into my new book, for anyone wanting an elegant and easy dinner party dessert in the lead up to Christmas…

Ninette, 1935, Mallorca, Spain

Afternoon golden hour is well into its glorious, orange-casting glow as I begin to cook with Ninette in her citrus surrounded home. Our backdrop is a dramatic mountain-scape, which adds to the sheer beauty of Mallorca. I can’t have wished for a better location to exemplify the island, or this particular dish, which Ninnette tells me is a regular in her repertoire because her grandchildren have always loved it so much. 

Her garden is bursting with oranges. Crates are piled high with them and the branches on some of the trees bow down to the weight of the enormous orange baubles, another nod to why this sorbet featured so frequently at her table throughout the years. To make this sorbet with anything but fresh fruit would be a disservice to this Mallorcan matriarch. Effortless to whip up as a refreshing and palate-cleansing conclusion to Ninette’s cod escabeche, it’s a dessert I now return to again and again for a refined (and light) end to an indulgent dinner party. 

When they were still children, my grandchildren adored this dessert. The most simplified version of this is oranges from our orange trees, peeled and sprinkled with a little cinnamon. It’s what I would serve them at Christmas while they were still too young to eat sugar. The sorbet is also very easy to make and I find it more elegant than ice cream at dinner.

NINETTE’S CHRISTMAS ORANGE AND CINNAMON SORBET RECIPE