From November 29th onwards, nothing is allowed but “Charlie Brown Christmas” (Vince Guaraldi Trio).
We typically celebrate Christmas at our home in Soho, New York City with my husband Scott [Schuman], his two daughters Isabel and Claudia, and our dogs Charlie the beagle (three years old), and Baffi the wirehaired dachshund (eight months old).
We enjoy maintaining the illusion of Santa. Scott and I sneak out at night to put the presents under the tree, while his daughters put out cookies and oat milk. We try to get as big of a tree that will fit in the elevator and we do stockings, which we typically open first. We’re also big proponents of Christmas lights—white, not color. We hang them anywhere possible.
Scott and I tend to wake up first, somewhere around 6-to-8am, which makes us look like the most eager (which we probably are!).
The first thing we do is walk the dogs. This year I got them two cute Christmas sweaters, which I’m particularly excited to unveil. During our walk, we might stop for a coffee at Maman or Happy Bones.
Rather than dinner, we celebrate with a huge Christmas breakfast. Our household loves to have as many carbs as possible: cinnamon rolls, pastries, pancakes, waffles—we’ve been known to do it all.
My husband dresses up the table with his silver collection, and we get a nice little arrangement at a local flower shop. I’m vegetarian so I’ll usually have some sort of vegetarian sausage with some potatoes (I’m more of a savory person than a sweet one!). I’ll have drip coffee if I didn’t get one while out walking the dogs, and Scott will have espresso in one of the espresso cups that we’ve collected from all over Italy.
Scott has a profound love for Italy, so I always try to gift him something from there. Last year, I bought him a photograph taken in Sardinia by Marianne Sin-Pfältzer, which I tracked down through a gallery in Milan.
His daughters, who are in their late teens and early 20s, like to do their own shopping so we typically buy them gift cards. We get creative by wrapping their presents in misleading boxes, such as a pizza box or a box within a larger box, nesting dolls style.
Breakfast lasts for several hours—we’re in pajamas all day long. By the end of the day, we’ll get takeout and snuggle up together on the couch with the dogs in front of a movie. We love to watch something funny, usually “Elf” or “The Grinch”—it’s such a classic.