As fans of Stylist will know, we’re celebrating our 10th birthday this year. Which means that, throughout 2019, we’ve handed over 10 issues of the magazine to 10 guest editors. 

We kicked off with Hollywood superstar and equality champion Brie Larson in January. Since then, we’ve had Yara Shahidi, Adwoa Aboah, Lily Allen, Jameela Jamil, Roxane Gay, Billie Piper, Caitlin Moran and the modern world’s ultimate mother-daughter duo Hillary and Chelsea Clinton all add their spin to the magazine… and we’ve loved every single issue.

As 2019 comes to a close, so does our 10th – and final – birthday guest edit. We wanted to end our year of celebration with an editor who would not only sum up our journey, but also guarantee some fun. And who better than national treasure Claudia Winkleman? Back in 2009 when Stylist launched Claudia starred on the cover of issue four and has appeared in the magazine seven (SEVEN!) times since. 

With this thought in mind, it’s an absolute privilege to hand over the reins to her for our final, and most festive, issue of the year.

“Well this is a total honour,” says Claudia.“Guest edit? I didn’t even know what it meant. Then I met the lovely people at Stylist and they explained I could choose what went in the whole issue. Are you serious? I exclaimed over cake. I thought it was the usual, ‘Yeah I love being orange and I’m nuts about Baileys.’ This time it was serious. I was allowed to have a say in everything.” 

Claudia has used her issue to cover all the festive bases, championing lashings of gold jewellery in the Style List, a feature on the art of the perfect nap, and a whole collection of cheese toastie recipes from the likes of Tom Kerridge and Nigella Lawson. 

She called on Miranda Hart to curate the ultimate in top 10 telly and films for the holiday season, and stepped into an animated world for a special illustrated cover.

“I loathe being photographed, thank you to the brilliant Axel Scheffler for getting me out of a cover shoot,” she says, explaining that The Gruffalo illustrator’s books with Julia Donaldson have played a big part in her 17 years of motherhood so far.

Growing from story books to Snapchat, Claudia’s kids were also the inspiration for this week’s travel. “I’m slightly obsessed with taking my kids to places without wifi (don’t tell them, I always pretend I didn’t know) so we’re featuring Devon. Completely beautiful, no air travel and no Snapchat.Win win.Win win.”

Claudia also wanted to use her issue to celebrate the heroes among us, whether they be global women making change, public figures, or those of us who will be working this Christmas. 

“I wanted to highlight the extraordinary people who work over Christmas,” she says. “While many of us will be eating mince pies, arguing about how to make the perfect bread sauce and playing board games – all across the UK there are people who get up on 25 December and put on their uniform. I’m thinking of nurses, ambulance drivers, doctors, charity workers and the police. We’re grateful to them all.”

Claudia adds: “I also wanted to shine a light on those people who woke us up in 2019 – Greta Thunberg, Emma Barnett and Scarlett Curtis.”

Essentially, Christmas is a time for both tinsel and reflection, and Claudia has delivered on both. Read everything she and her chosen writers have to say here.

Photography: Sarah Brick