November Box 2025: Coziness Above All

Room by Rose Uniacke. All that’s missing is a mug of tea and a bit of untidiness.

A November box is a collection of treats meant to be opened on a chilly November day, to help ease you into dark winter. For the next several months, it’s imperative that your home is your nest, not a prison cell, so plan accordingly.

This Ikea Stockholm 2025 tea light holder is only $13 CAD.

Let’s start with these reassuringly heavy, thick glass tea light holders from IKEA’s new Stockholm 2025 collection. Only $13 each, they deliver soothing, flickering light to warm your battered spirit when it starts getting dark at 4:30 p.m. Scented candle prices have lately gone through the roof (even Nest, which i’ve always considered middle market, now has a $118 Christmas candle) so a $13 votive holder that you can buy in multiples and still afford groceries only makes sense.

This Uniqlo cashmere jumper is the perfect dark navy.

The influencer industrial complex has decided that Quiet Luxury is so over, but I still get excited about a new (or new to me) navy cashmere sweater. In Toronto, Courage My Love in Kensington Market has a great cache of vintage cashmere. I remember interviewing celebrity hair stylist Sally Hershberger (creator of Meg Ryan’s iconic shag) during the Toronto film festival and all she wanted to do was visit Courage to trawl the cashmere racks. If your town is lacking vintage cashmere, then a Uniqlo staple like this navy crewneck ($130 CAD) is a happy substitute.

For the most aesthetically tightly wound of us, there is the problem of the Kleenex box. No matter how much effort the Kleenex people expend to create a pleasing design, it’s still a cardboard box in your living room, which to me is like leaving a pizza box on the side table. Toronto artist Heather Shaw creates beautiful linen covers $38, that sit elegantly, unobtrusively in your room, waiting to perform their important service to your runny, winter nose.

Come November, whatever sun damage you got this summer is now glaringly evident. Clarins Multi Active Glow Serum, $80, Sephora) is a biphasic (shake me) serum with glycolic acid to happily (but gently) munch away at dead skin and vitamin C to brighten and tackle any dark spots. It’s a perfect thing to apply during the day when you’re home. Just putter about the house, in your slippers and fuzzy sweater, clutching your tea while doing your skin some good.

If getting an uninterrupted eight hours has become fraught (thanks for nothing, menopause,) Sweet Bee Organics Sweet Sleep, a lavender scented highly emollient magnesium balm you rub on your feet before bed, helps promote restful sleep. This nightly ritual tells your body it’s time to sleep and although the jury is still out on the science, it’s undeniable that having lavender-scented, moisturized feet is very cosseting and luxurious.

UK food writer Skye McAlpine’s The Christmas Companion, $47, Indigo Books, with its utterly lickable pages, is just the ticket to get you into the nesting and holiday spirit. With her mismatched china, overloaded tables, half burned down candles and glazed fruit studded Christmas cakes, McAlpine’s tables are extravagant but relaxed. And there are enough non-Christmas recipes like say, pumpkin gnocchi, or the cheesy fondue roast potatoes pictured here, that you can start working on your protective, winter insulating layer now.

A ‘November Box’ For Hunkering Down in Style

The welcoming front hall in designer Rose Uniacke’s London home.

A November box is a collection of treats to help see you through the rain and chill of November, which is, in fact, the cruelest month, not April.

HomeCourt from Courteney Cox is a welcomed not reviled celebrity brand.

For those of us who don’t want our homes to smell like a giant synthetic lemon after we’ve cleaned, Homecourt surface cleaner, $20 US, (mine was a gift from a dear friend) is a revelation. So, thank you, Courteney Cox for launching scented homecare instead of yet another celebrity skincare line. Cece (one of four beautiful, non fake lemon scents) is gently smoky with cardamom, cinnamon and leather. It makes your living space smell like a mansion turned members-only club: all wood panelling and deep, down-filled chesterfields to lounge on in front of roaring fires as discreet staff bring you drinks and lovely nibbles on silver trays.

Vetiver is so smokily resinous, earthy and grounding in fragrances (like Chanel’s best in breed, Sycomore) that I never understood why there aren’t more vetiver candles. Diptyque’s Vetyver candle, $98, Holt Renfrew, is both grassy and evocative of a humid jungle but also cozy and wintery. And if you are in Toronto, head to Yorkdale Mall, because it houses Canada’s first freestanding Diptyque boutique. This, more than the coming downtown Nobu should truly make Toronto ‘world class’, yes?

It gets dark by 4:30 p.m., so celebrate that and have a drink. No, not alcohol. Chocolate! Specifically, SOMA chocolatemaker Dark Side of the Mug drinking chocolate, $8. Mixed into hot water (or hot milk if you are feeling flush) it will give you the serotonin you need in the darkness, as chocolate contains tryptophan, a precursor to serotonin. #betterlivingthroughscience.

It’s time to reread Nancy Mitford’s classic The Pursuit of Love before India Knight’s modern reworking, Darling is available in Canada. Luckily the modernized reimagining is getting good reviews, but the original, and its companion book, Love in a Cold Climate (same time frame, different characters) are worth an annual reread, or a first read if you have never had the pleasure.

Birkenstocks, my father’s favourite shoes, will one day return to being woefully out of style. But in the meantime, I am enjoying seeing bulbous-toed, jolie laide Bostons on the same people who, in 2016, wore furry Gucci Princetown slides. Shearling lined Birkenstock Bostons, $220, make cozy slippers and the closed toe hides the evidence if you’ve been skipping pedicures in the winter. Get the Black or the Mocha (dark brown) that are lined in dark shearling. The pale suede ‘mink’ ones are pretty but they’re lined in white shearling, which is impossible to keep clean and they will look shabby quickly despite your best efforts.

No need to fear the dry, moisture-sucking air this winter if you have this generously-sized jar of Laline Dead Sea Minerals Salt Scrub, in the shower (laline.ca, $45.) The fig and sandalwood scent is both brightly green and earthily soothing while the sea salt gently nudges away dead skin cells as the argan oil and glycerin soften your skin.