‘I have a gift cupboard at home’

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My husband is Australian and for the last four Christmases we’ve gone to a friend’s house in Sydney. It’s very different over there to Christmas in Paris. I’d never celebrated during the day for a start. In France, we have a dinner at night with all the family and then you get on with your life. And we don’t even have it at Christmas. We have a big family and a lot of people take holidays at that time, so it’s usually held in the weeks before or after.

In Australia, we go to the beach or stay at home and sit around the pool and have a barbecue. My friend’s family are Catholic, so they do it properly. You normally have seven to eight glasses in front of you and the family just keeps pouring in different kinds of alcohol. Foodwise, it’s turkey, lots of veggies, foie gras and, for dessert, passion fruit pavlova.

I have a friend who loves Hermès and ice cream. When she had a baby I bought an Hermès silk careé, printed with ice creams. I said it was baby’s first Hermès

I am a very organised gift-giver. This sounds so lame, but I have a gift cupboard at home. I think it’s because my job means that I have access to a lot of stuff. If I’m ordering pieces for a project, say, glassware or crockery, and I think it would make a great gift, I’ll order a little more and put it in the cupboard. There are also a few gifts that [I have received but] I don’t want in there, like candles. I just don’t get the concept of candles and they’re not so good for your health. If someone gives me one, I always think, “Wow, you really don’t know me!”

For my friends who aren’t necessarily into design, I like to give them something that is a bit unexpected, that I hope they’ll appreciate and could potentially turn into value. I like showing them new designers. I have given a lot of pieces by James Shaw, the British designer who works with recycled plastic. He does all sorts of weird objects — door handles, drawer knobs, candlesticks, vases.

I also really like the Australian brand, Dinosaur Designs. I know the owner and every winter I go to the store in Sydney and stock up. They have stores in London and New York too. Koibird is a really good place for small gifts. The selection is great. And Dover Street Market — I’m obsessed. I go during the sales.

Ichendorf, the glassware brand, is really cute for gifts, so there’s always some of that in the cupboard. It’s blown glass and inside the glass are colourful little objects — flowers, fish, creatures. They sell it in SCP in London. It’s not very expensive, so I buy lots of that and always keep one for myself.

For special presents, I like to give something personal. The Australian friends we go to at Christmas are originally from France and the father is very into the family tree. Last year, we gave him a beautiful metalwork Parisian street sign, embossed with his family’s names and an old Parisian road name. That was pretty huge — he cried. I have a friend who loves Hermès and ice cream. When she had a baby I bought an Hermès silk careé, printed with lots of ice creams, and I had it framed. I said it was baby’s first Hermès. For another friend with a new baby, I made a mobile with wind chimes and lots of other little things I found in the studio.

I love being given jewellery. The best gift I’ve ever received was a wedding gift from my husband: a necklace with a gold shell filled with different coloured stones. It was pretty epic. I wear a lot of necklaces. I like the French brand, Goossens, which does gold-plated pieces and is not so expensive. For me, though, it’s about where something comes from. Rather than just buying from a huge brand, I would always prefer a friend give me something they had discovered themselves in a flea market.

Julien Sebban is a Paris-based architect, designer and founder of the multidisciplinary studio Uchronia, known for its playful and experimental approach.

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