Holiday greetings to you all! I am thrilled to return, once again, for an updated version of our annual gift giving guide. If you have a Damian Lewis fan in your life, this post is for YOU!
I am a burlesque performer, who specializes in holiday-themed acts. Being known as the “Queen of Christmas”, I love merging my two worlds and bringing my love of the holiday season AND my love of all things Damian into one fun post. It’s also a nice creative break for me, since I have been costuming and act developing for this season since August. I’m putting down the tinsel and picking up the keyboard! Here are some of our tried and true favorites, and some new picks-enjoy!
Television and Films available on DVD:
The first stop on our list has to be the several wonderful choices in DVD releases that you could choose.
You can find both older and newer releases at most major online retailers like Amazon.com. They have everything from the big screen down to the small! You could go for this beautiful Band of Brothers DVD Collection, or a small release film like The Silent Storm. With DVDs, you can span almost the entire spectrum of his career, watching Damian grow from a talented young man playing the heroic Dick Winters, all the way to a mature, seasoned and experienced actor portraying the overbearing and abusive Balor McNeil. It’s the best kind of “time travel”, in my opinion!
All sorts of excellent collections of TV seasons are also available, such as seasons 1-4 of the show that got this whole blog rolling, Homeland, to our most recent obsession, Billions! I’m sure you’ve already got seasons one, two and three, but make sure you snag the newly-released season 4. It’s the perfect time of year for a Billions marathon re-watch!
You can even relive our lively summer from a few years back with Charlie Crews if you’d pick up Seasons 1 and 2 of Life on DVD!
source: NBC
In the first guide we published I was all about Wolf Hall, released by PBS, which is still a great choice. And last year I wanted to shine a spotlight on Forsyte Saga, which I promised to watch in 2018 and 2019, and failed to do!! So I am highlighting it again, for accountability, and a reminder to WATCH THIS SHOW, HOLLIE!! It’s got Damian in a tux, come on!!!
source: Amazon
Last year we were still waiting for our first glimpse of Damian as the iconic Steve McQueen, but this year we can watch it for ourselves in the comfort of our own home! Snag this awesome collectors edition DVD when it releases on December 10th-you’ll have it under the tree in plenty of time to spare!
Books:
If you loved Band of Brothers and Wolf Hall, maybe you’d love to take a deeper dive into the books that inspired these great shows? A quick stroll through your local bookseller, or a bigger chain like Barnes and Noble, and you can find the novels of both stories! Both “Wolf Hall” and “Bring up the bodies.” If you are anything like me, you’ve probably been excited to consume all I could find out about the history of Henry, Thomas, Anne and the time they ruled during. I love the way that fandom can light a fire within, and suddenly you are on this quest to educate yourself and gain new knowledge. I have Damian to thank for my new found appreciation of some pretty iconic parts of English history!
Speaking of our Damian fandom, we cannot have a section on books without including “Meeting Damian Lewis”, a fun little bit of life-meets-fan-fiction that we featured previously on the blog. Thank you, Christine Wilson! I think of you as an honorary member of the sisterhood 🙂
And new to the list, for 2019, is a little Shakespeare! If you pick up the audio book of Shakespeare for Every Day of the Year, you’ll be treated to recordings of many famous voices, including our favorite power couple-Damian and Helen!
Today we're celebrating the audiobook of Shakespeare for Every Day of the year with this dazzling extract from Macbeth, read by the brilliant @lewis_damian and with introduction by @AllieEsiri.
Available in hardback and audiobook this Thursday!https://t.co/A8ckBNdd6i pic.twitter.com/zUciHYcrIJ
— Macmillan Children's (@MacmillanKidsUK) September 18, 2019
Officially Licensed Show Merchandise:
This is the part where I, as an artist, have to pull out my soapbox. Please, please, please, as we partake in our fandom and enjoy our shows, do what you can to support official, licensed show merchandise. These shows are created by hard working actors, writers, directors and crew, so respect their intellectual property. In supporting the “real deal”, you in turn support them. There, now we can get on to the goodies!! 😀
Showtime, of course, has a great supply of Billions merchandise. Everything from T-shirts to coffee mugs to Funko POP figures!
Even though I am a big-time traitor, our fearless leader treated me to a Mason Capital Mug last year.
And while this mug, and poor Mason Capital, are no more, you can still pick a side with both #teamtaylor and #teamaxe mugs. Though I am really digging both the “F*ck you money” mug and the “Festive” Axe Cap mug(it has Holly on it!!)
Warning, though, if you buy any of the “F*ck you money” merch…..there’s no censoring in the final product!
I am also really digging how much personalized merch is available, where you can have the name of your choice added to several items! Makes you feel like part of the team, right?
So that’s the list for this year, folks! I hope you can find all the fun gifts for yourself or the Damian fan in your life. And don’t forget-all year long, you can find an assortment of our favorite items under the shop section on Damian-lewis.com! What are your favorite items? Join us in the comments to chat about what we hope to find under our trees on Christmas morning!
Happy Hollie-days!!
Love, Holliedazzle and the whole Fan Fun with Damian Lewis Crew