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Plus: James Brown's Funky Christmas, the utility of L.L. Bean, and the chic-est mocktail in town 

The Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center was lit on Wednesday night, December 4th an annual holiday tradition. Photo by Selcuk Acar/Anadolu via Getty Images

There were a lot of things I expected to miss about living in New York City when I moved to the Hudson Valley a few years ago. One aspect I hadn’t considered was that with so little time spent on mass transit, when would I find the time to read? It was easy to identify as A Reader when I was spending at least 30 minutes with a book each way on my commute to work. Now I need to make the effort to squeeze in a chapter or two before bed — a good habit I quickly break as soon as my 1-year-old experiences yet another sleep regression or I fall into the trap of “just one more episode” of some TV show.

That’s why it was a treat to take the train into Manhattan this week for the New York holiday party. For my journey, I picked up a copy of The Anthropologists by Aysegül Savas, which topped Vulture’s Best Books of the Year (as chosen by the always great Maris Kreizman, and which I had the pleasure of editing). I was immediately charmed by Asya, the book’s protagonist, a documentary filmmaker living abroad with her husband Manu in an unnamed foreign city. Barely anything happens — Asya and Manu tour real estate, family and friends visit, meals are eaten and drinks poured — and yet Asya’s observations are riveting. The everyday rituals of life and moments of unexpected, casual intimacy become profound in Savas’s novel. I felt so inspired that I started examining my relationships and routines as if I were Asya, wondering how my surroundings and community have influenced me and how I remain different from others in my immediate world. It’s a beautiful, gentle way to take stock as the year comes to an end. 

Every single behind-the-scenes video from New York’s Saturday Night Live cover shoot is a treat (they’re all on Instagram — Vulture social-media editor Bailey Kircher hit it out of the park), but my favorite is Tracy Morgan listing his personal reasons to love New York. Not enough people are giving NYC credit as King Kong’s place of death.   

Learning that I agree with Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy on one of their possible Department of Government Efficiency plans. A real “the worst person you know made a great point” moment. 

I keep trying to think of casual ways to send the Cut’s entire Wedding Planning Week collection to anyone I know who is engaged or might be heading that way soon. It’s full of stories about what not to do when you’re tying the knot, like having a very long shuttle ride from the hotel to the venue or insisting on an ultraspecific dress code. I didn’t agree with all the complaints, but it made me feel seen as a somewhat frequent guest. 

I’m decorating my Christmas tree on Saturday, which means I’ll be spinning my (limited) holiday vinyl collection while I stress over spacing the lights correctly. We have a few albums I insist on hearing every December, but the one I play the most is James Brown's Funky Christmas. It’s not just good Christmas music, it’s great music music.  

The idea of a $500 L.L.Bean tote bag seemed obscene to me. But Hanna Flanagan’s review of the special redesigned tote, which is a collaboration with Tibi, gave me a new appreciation for this classic utilitarian mainstay. Did you know the Boat and Tote’s predecessor was called the Bean Ice Carrier and was designed in 1944 as a bag to transport big blocks of ice? No wonder it seems like you can carry everything in it on beach days. Also, this redesign would look great in any season.

Underground Gourmet columnist Tammie Teclemariam wrote about “a mocktail for wine snobs.” I’m ready to make the trek to Brooklyn for this nonalcoholic beverage, “as vibrantly citrusy as it was mellow and earthy” and “prickled with a light frizzante.” 

Mark Mitton can be seen doing his close-up tricks for celebrities at A-list parties — and New York staffers at our aforementioned holiday party. 

After the election, I don’t want warm-and-fuzzy comfort TV. Instead, I want to lose all sense of time and place in a twisty thriller. I binged both seasons of The Old Man in less than a week, and now I’m onto Peacock’s The Day of the Jackal. I was hooked from the first episode: There’s intrigue, shifty motivations, and some hilariously wild disguises. 

Taylor Sheridan. What is this guy doing with Yellowstone? 

Next week's newsletter will be helmed by Emily Heller, an editor at Vulture. 

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