When my girlfriend presented me with a Big Green Egg meat smoker on my birthday, I viewed it less as a gift and more as a call to arms. I am not what one might call “an outdoorsy person.” I went to summer camp; I’ve backpacked a few times, sure. But I’ve not once been able to grow a decent beard, and I notice when I get a small cut on my hand. The Big Green Egg, even with the minor assembly required and dozens of instructional YouTube videos featuring Southern men, seemed intimidating—a bulbous green version of the monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey. To my surprise, the Egg proved to be incredibly user-friendly. I tightened some screws, lit some wood chips on fire, and before I knew it, I was standing in the backyard with my mother’s boyfriend, idly making small talk while we smoked our Thanksgiving turkey. Just men being men. (Starting at $575, biggreenegg.com) —Gabriel Jandali Appel

Looking to make a fresh start next year? Nothing helps you feel more in control of your possibilities than a handsome datebook or diary—the paper ones, filled with actual blank pages! Lately we are big fans of Pineider, the family-owned stationer founded in Florence in 1774, which just opened a lovely new shop in Rockefeller Center—their first in the U.S.—where they’re also very happy to hand-emboss your monogram on any book you select. (Our favorite: the Daily Diary in Bordeaux.) (pineider.com) —Michael Hainey

The green clay mask from Sarisha is one of only three skin-care products I’ve used where, a few hours after applying it, I get people commenting on my skin’s glow. You make the mask by mixing the baby-blue powder in a bowl with a few drops of “a liquid of choice” (I use water) and stirring it into a paste that you can finger-paint all over your face. The powder is made mostly of edible ingredients—guava-fruit extract, spirulina, matcha powder—plus French green clay. It takes only 15 minutes for it to soften your skin and clean out your pores. Apparently, the green clay “detoxifies,” a word that no longer has a clear meaning. All I know is that my skin looks better after I use the mask. ($45, sarishabeauty.com) —Jensen Davis

Those who have been fortunate enough to enjoy a meal at Gabriel Kreuther’s eponymous restaurant, on 42nd Street in Midtown Manhattan, know how revelatory highfalutin Alsatian cuisine can be. Over the course of the past six years, his tartes flambées, langoustine bison tartares, and myriad interpretations of foie gras have drawn famished expense-account types and culinary-experience chasers alike. Now he’s bringing a user-friendly version of his greatest hits to home cooks with The Spirit of Alsace, an elegant cookbook co-written with Michael Ruhlman. It’s best to block off an entire Saturday if you’re going to attempt the traditional baeckeoffe, but other projects, such as fermenting cabbage, are weeknight affairs. ($55.20, bookshop.org) —Ashley Baker

After 18 months of face masks—but who’s counting?—we can no longer stomach the surgical garb. (How many bleached paper fibers have we unwittingly inhaled? Let’s not even go there.) This winter, there’s one superlative option: Heather Taylor Home, the Los Angeles–based purveyor of smart and well-made linens of all persuasions. While Taylor’s napkins and tablecloths are really something, it’s her face masks that are most essential. Made of fabric remnants, the masks are thick but somehow breathable and don’t leave us with a case of “maskne.” They are sold in a pack of 10, with an additional 10 donated to those in need. ($50 for a pack of 10, heathertaylorhome.com) —Ashley Baker

In the absence of Richard Curtis, this season there is Matthew Vaughn, serving up a crowd-pleaser not quite in the feel-good, festive variety of holiday classics but close enough. Vaughn’s third installment in the Kingsman film series—action-packed, dryly humorous movies centered on a fictional spy agency—The King’s Man serves as a prequel to 2014’s Kingsman: The Secret Service and 2017’s Kingsman: The Golden Circle. While the sequel brought in stars—from Channing Tatum to Elton John—the prequel, hitting theaters on December 22, goes back to the agency’s early-20th-century roots, with Ralph Fiennes in the starring role. Tom Hollander makes an appearance, as does Rhys Ifans, perhaps best known for his part as Spike in another holiday go-to: Notting Hill. (20thcenturystudios.com) —Julia Vitale