'Christmas Wrapping' and a Year-End Wrap Up

Greeting the holidays with an '80s classic, then saying goodbye to 2023.

The holiday season is supposed about joy, yet some of the best Christmas songs are melancholy and reflective and downright sad.

I’m a fan of all of them, but sometimes you just need a bop.

Arriving at the end of the year can often feel like running the final mile of a marathon: we’re all exhausted. Which is why I wanted to share The Waitresses’ “Christmas Wrapping”—it’s festive without being sugary. Instead, it has a fun, punky attitude, all the while epitomizing holiday joy.

Even though the song starts with a hilariously cynical “bah humbug!,” you can’t help but feel merry when listening to it. I’d argue that it’s the coolest holiday song ever.¹

Year-End Wrap Up

Starred in a blockbuster movie about a doll. Named TIME’s Person of the Year. Staged a mega world tour in support of a career-defining album. Wrapped up the run of a popular prestige drama about a rich family beholden to its patriarch. Unknowingly starred on a reality show that became a surprise hit. Went viral on TikTok. Baked a cake. Dated a Kardashian. Released a concert doc of my mega world tour.

I did none of those things in 2023.² But here is a quick round up of some things I did do this year…

I published a novel—my second!

Advika and the Hollywood Wives was a Book of the Month pick, and everyone from my dad to Taylor Jenkins Reid to The Associated Press called it a “page turner.”

The paperback is coming out early next year, so I’ll have some more to share about it then. But it makes for a great holiday gift from your local independent bookstore!

I wrote about how the Real Housewives inspired my second novel

Some ideas are born in a laboratory…while others are born while marathoning a reality show. I wrote all about it for Elle.

I pondered Carrie Bradshaw’s writing career on And Just Like That

I had THOUGHTS—this might be the most cathartic essay I’ve ever written—and I shared them at Salon.

I reflected on what I have in common with an Oscar-winning director

Steven Soderbergh keeps a pop culture diary of everything he reads and watches, and since Jan 1, 2020, I have too. I wrote about it for Dirt.

I published my first short story—ever

I turned my fascination with author bios into a short story published at Brown Girl Magazine called “About the Author,” which tells the story of a writer through her ever-changing author bios.

(While I’ve written a few short stories, I was never able to get any of them published until this one. My first work of published fiction happens to be my debut novel, which is either strange or cool, I can’t decide.)

One more thing

I first had the idea for Free Happiness two years ago. But I didn’t pursue it because I kept thinking, “no one needs another newsletter!” Earlier this summer, I decided to finally commit. And I did so for many reasons, one of them being that I needed a weekly serotonin boost too.

It’s been a lot of fun to write so far, and my thanks to all who’ve read and commented along the way.

Have a wonderful and restful end of the year, and see you in 2024.

1. I’d attribute a lot of the cool factor to late frontwoman Patty Donahue, whose speak-singing style brings an edginess to the song’s irrepressible charms.

2. It’s possible that someone else might have done each of these things, but I can’t say for sure.