Salon's Celebrity Gift Guide: Steven Slater

From aromatherapy candles to alcohol -- what to give the stressed out, disgruntled employee in your life

Published November 28, 2010 12:01AM (EST)

Steven Slater
Steven Slater

The JetBlue flight attendant caused a pop culture sonic boom when he quit his airline job by telling off his passengers and exiting through the plane's evacuation slide. But we all know that under every disgruntled employee, there's someone who just needs to take a load off (and wants you to buy them nice things). This holiday season, the ticking time bomb in your life is in luck!

  • After the sort of workday that calls for either a bloodcurdling scream or a full-body cleanse, comfort is key. Lest he bite your head off after a hard day of labor, help your breadwinner chill with something soft, like a comfort neck pillow from Flight 001 ($16). Even sitting on the couch can become an exercise in positive visualization if he's extra cozy, and imagining a trip to the glittering Mediterranean is easier with a lightweight sleep mask ($14). Light some lavender, lemongrass or tangerine aromatherapy candles ($19.95) and it's like paradise in your living room.
  • Also helpful for kicking back: alcohol. Make the habit crafty and cool with a do-it-yourself project. A beer-making starter kit ($135.95) comes with all of the ingredients you need to brew from home, including the appropriate buckets and tubes to pretend you're on "Boardwalk Empire." Having an at-home project will distract him from daily work-oriented disasters and when it's finished, the beer gets you drunk, which is more than can be said for other relaxing pastimes like knitting.
  • Assuming he's worth it, what Steven Slater, or anyone equally as overworked, really needs is a vacation. Air travel should be kept to a minimum, because the only place more stressful than the office is the airport, but a cruise is smooth, and they feed you until you pop. A seven-night trip from Venice to Barcelona ($629) takes a tour around the whole of Italy with stops in Naples, Rome, Florence and Toulon, along with a day in Croatia and Spain as a final destination. The vacationer won't even remember what work is.

By Joe Coscarelli

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Salon's Celebrity Gift Guide