There is no holiday or rite of passage that is not celebrated with objects. Christmas and New Year’s Day are no exception, bringing with them a huge set of expectations about how to decorate, embellish, or even simply leave a tangible sign of the advancing time.
Here, we have put together some new items embodying the spirit and flavor of secular Christmas. You will find gold, refractions, newly inaugurated warm hints of red, or small games to be enjoyed in progress until the end of the year. If the Christmas theme continues to fascinate designers, we like to note that the approach that seduces them is often that of irony: a way to downplay the stylistic features of tradition, and to cloak the guilty pleasure of the holiday season with the right amount of light-heartedness.
Design welcomes Christmas: 15 holiday gift ideas for others and for you
The Christmas atmosphere passes through some simulacrum objects, evoking the spirit, the conviviality, or the age-old search for the perfect gift of the holiday season.
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- Giulia Zappa
- 13 December 2023
For the 10th anniversary of the Christmas Star Campaign – the fundraising event that the Norwegian Cancer Society launches every December to support cancer research – Snøhetta has designed a collection of 3 stars to decorate the Christmas tree or to be used as seasonal decorations both at home and in the hospital. The shape of the stars breaks free from classic Christmas iconography to embrace a more abstract reflection on time and movement. Made of paper, the three designs also include a limited-edition version in brass.
The Artemide icon designed by Giancarlo Mattioli with the Urbanist Architects Group Città Nuova and winner of the 1967 StudioArtemide/Domus competition had already found an update with the launch of its mini version, Nessino, in 2003. For this latest Christmas, the revival is celebrated with the introduction of a new hint of red in the color chart, closer to the classic Christmas palette and a more mellow, sensual shade than the original pop orange.
Designed from Alexander Girard’s archive of modernist designs, these essential ornaments are inspired by a series of major archetypes – the Earth, the sun, the moon, a dove, and a little mouse. Made of brass, they respond to the sparkling prerogatives of the Christmas flavor, while adapting to use throughout the year as well.
Little does it matter whether it is set up in a secular or religious spirit: reduced to an essential number of characters, Massimo Giacon’s nativity scene celebrates with an amused and joyful stroke the bonds and feelings of the family par excellence, the one composed of Mary, Joseph and Jesus.
With its magmatic form it escapes the rational geometric predictability of Christmas tree ornaments. It is not surprising then if it is signed by Björk himself, who has always been sensitive to the iridescent fluidity expressed by masks, graphics and sets. The design, limited edition and handmade in Poland, was curated by M/M Paris, a design agency specialized in music.
It is a hyperbolic advent calendar, bringing together the sense of preciousness devoted to classicism typical of the Tiffany brand with Andy Warhol’s eccentricity. Like a Russian doll, each box-calendar opens to reveal 24 gifts accompanied by numbered hangtags featuring the artist’s illustrations made for Tiffany between the 1950s and 1960s.
A breach of imperfection breaks the appearance of some classic Christmas ornaments: the ball liquefies, the star halves, the bell breaks, in a game of misunderstandings imagined by Snarkitecture – in collaboration with Seletti – to break the do-gooder appearance of Christmas with an injection of humor.
Tube Lights is a floor light with an unusual shape that builds the design of light with a strong architectural dimension. We find in it the soft, essential forms that accompany the dreamy designs of Objects of Common Interest, here especially in line with an ‘at large’ Christmas atmosphere thanks to the use of brass and the refraction of neon.
The historic Finnish brand enriches its collection of Christmas ornaments every year. For 2022, it has presented Birdie, a clear glass ornament enhanced by Oiva Toikka’s essential design. If, on the other hand, you want to play with the shape of a great classic, all you have to do is look to Alvar Aalto’s famous 1936 vase, also known as Savoy, here miniaturized into a candleholder version.
Half-jokingly, this little bowl – or pocket emptier, depending on taste and need – made of ceramic peanuts acts as a distraction: moving away from the great Christmas classics, both in terms of taste and iconography.
Moscardino is a great design classic by two former young designers. If the original version, which was awarded a Compasso d’Oro in 2001, was made of mater-bi, Alessi’s new steel edition fits the Christmas spirit, making this fusion of spoon and fork a perfect ally for the holiday buffets ahead.
An abstract decoration in the holiday spirit, Prickle is inspired by the sea urchin and can be hung or placed on a tabletop. Available in coral red, black, green and golden brass.
In this ‘conceptual advent calendar,’ Sebastian Bergne invites users to a somewhat more dynamic gesture than simply opening a small window, that of removing stamps and sticking them on a poster, building day by day a message of good wishes again abstract and spiritual.
Designed by the Japanese-Finnish duo Company for Artek, Pauper is inspired by the old Finnish custom of placing wooden statuettes outside churches to collect money for the poor. In times of inflation, Pauper turns into a reminder, both collectively and individually, of the virtuous effects of saving on personal finances.
Beyond the decoration, the story. Always a glass habituée, Alessandra Baldereschi rethinks Christmas tree balls by placing a small natural element, be it flora or fauna, in a transparent bubble to be inspired by.