Even if you’re not reveling in capitalistic excess tomorrow, you likely will have the day off. And so will everybody else. So, today, on Christmas Eve, get your affairs in order. Have a drink. Relax. Like this:
1. Finish your last-minute shopping.
Liquor stores were made for this (e.g. Whistlepig just released a wonderful, limited-edition rye). So was Home Depot. Surely somebody needs a power drill?
2. Stop by your local and tip the bartender.
Here’s our holiday tipping guide.
3. Home. Reading chair. Music.
This year, we’re recommending Kay Martin and Her Body Guards. Risque Vegas lounge act from the ’50s. She’ll put you in the holiday spirit.
4. Fix yourself a cocktail.
May we suggest The Ginger Man, courtesy of our friend Yusef Austin at Blue Water Grill in New York City. Or, one of our recent office favorites, the Puerto Rican concoction known as a coquito.
5. Relax with a nice, long read.
Our friends at Longreads just debuted their annual best stories of the year, including “I Smoked Pot With David Brooks,” “Who Wants to Shoot an Elephant” and TV reporter Miles O’Brien on what it’s like to lose an arm.
6. Or, hell with it, Netflix.
A reel’s worth of classic flicks are leaving Netflix at the end of the month, including Kramer vs. Kramer, The Breakfast Club, Braveheart, Gladiator and Big Trouble in Little China.
7. Or even more hell with it, slasher film.
Your correspondent’s own weird Christmas Eve tradition is to watch a seriously f—– up holiday flick right before bed. Something that cuts through the Christmas sap, you know? Two recs (not Netflix, but cheap to stream/rent): the ’80s slasher flick Silent Night Deadly Night and Rare Exports, where Finnish reindeer hunters fight an evil Santa. Good times.
8. Sleep the sleep of kings.
Did you buy any of the worst presents of 2014? No? Good job. Sleep well.
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