We asked Spear’s friends and contributors like Tom Aikens, Richard Dinan and William Sitwell to tell us about Christmases past and Christmas imminent: their best-ever gifts, their wished-for presents and how they like to spend the day
We asked Spear’s friends like Tom Aikens, Richard Dinan and William Sitwell to tell us about Christmas: their best-ever gifts, their wished-for presents and how they like to spend the day
Tom Aikens, Michelin-starred chef at Tom Aikens Restaurant in Chelsea
What’s the best gift you’ve ever received?
My little daughter Violette, the best present ever.
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What are you hoping for this Christmas?
A new Canon EOS 5D Mark 3.
How do you most like to spend Christmas?
Getting lots of rest good food and family time.
Review of Tom Aikens Restaurant
Richard Dinan, entrepreneur behind the Phantom Card and star of Made in Chelsea
What’s the best gift you’ve ever received?
A Bernese Mountain Dog Puppy.
What are you hoping for this Christmas?
Peace and quiet, want painting equipment, a touch surface 3D design table, a Senturion Bracelet.
How do you most like to spend Christmas?
Skiing in Gstaad with my family, cosy Christmas, hot chocolates and snow.
Content from our partners
Richard Dinan tells Spear’s about being a young entrepreneur
Diana B Henriques, author of Bernie Madoff, The Wizard of Lies: Inside the Infamous $65 Billion Swindle
The best present I ever got was ballroom dancing lessons, a gift from my spouse decades ago. I loved it so much that I plan to make ballroom dancing my primary sport, if and when I retire. Much more fun than golf, and a much nicer wardrobe, too.
All I want for Christmas this year is good weather for travel – and let me say, that is the very least Mother Nature owes those of us still drying off and digging out from Hurricane Sandy and the brief November blizzard she dragged in behind her. Clear skies and dry roads, please! No gift-wrapping necessary.
The best way to spend Christmas? I’m tediously traditional: a candlelight service, transcendent music and loved ones close enough to hug on short notice. And a little chocolate. Well, a lot of chocolate.
Review of The Wizard of Lies by Diana B Henriques
Mitch Winehouse, musician and philanthropist
What’s the best gift you’ve ever received?
One year my mum told me if you don’t behave yourself then I’ll throw all your presents away. I couldn’t believe it when she actually did it! My sister felt sorry for me and gave me a copy of The Count of Monte Christo. This was my best ever Christmas present because that year it was the only one I got… but I reckon my Mum was probably in the right.
Mitch Winehouse on the Amy Winehouse Foundation
Read part two of what Spear’s friends want for Christmas here
William Sitwell, contributor to Spear’s, editor of Waitrose Kitchen and author of A History of Food in 100 Recipes
What’s the best gift you’ve ever received?
Must have been Scalextric. In fact I’d still like to get that every Christmas.
What are you hoping for this Christmas?
Failing Scalextric I’d would mind getting Artemis Cooper’s biog of Patrick Leigh Fermor and a smart jumper or two and I wouldn’t mind someone else paying for my subscription to The Spectator.
How do you most like to spend Christmas?
At home – very traditional. Church, champagne, lunch, Queen’s speech, walk, telly.
Read William Sitwell’s pieces for Spear’s
Steve Lazarides, Lazarides Galleries, who represents Banksy, Jonathan Yeo and FAILE
What’s the best gift you’ve ever received?
I know this sounds like as bunch of mushy crap, but my twin sons were born on Christmas Eve and thats a present you can’t get from Selfridges, or maybe you can. Outside of that a Kappa jacket my mum bought me in the mid eighties, it made me the coolest kid in class for about 22 seconds.
What are you hoping for this Christmas?
To not burn my roast potatoes. For the kids to play with the presents rather than the wrapping paper. 8 hours un-broken sleep.
How do you most like to spend Christmas?
Stuffed with Quality street mashed out in front of an only fools and horses re run. Wrong but right.
Spear’s met Steve Lazarides during Frieze Week 2012
Anthony Haden-Guest, Arts editor of Spear’s
Patterns of work and a kind of trust in the haphazard have several times in my adult life meant Christmases spent remote from family or close friends. Once in Taormina, for instance, once in Pallastunturi in Finnish Lapland and once in the Cedars of Lebanon. It was in the last that I formed a friendship with a family which has endured and which literally saved my life.
Read Anthony Haden-Guest’s pieces for Spear’s
Philip Harris, head of UK Private Clients, Royal Bank of Canada
Where are you spending Christmas?
I will be spending Christmas in Herefordshire. I have a nine month old son, with two teeth and a crawl that looks like that of a monitor lizard. It’ll be his first Christmas. Christmas, children and claret. Perfect.
What is on your wish list?
At this stage of the game I have most things I need, so it is more about wants. I am a great car fan and am looking out for a mid-70s Chevrolet Corvette, in blue with side exhausts. That fabulous V8 rumble is worth its weight in gold.
What is your best Christmas memory?
Best memory is easy. Falling in love while skiing in St. Anton. We are now married!
Philip Harris tells Spear’s how young bankers can build their books
Read part two of what Spear’s friends want for Christmas here
