Yahoo News Style Icon Olivia Palermo Reveals How She's Making the Holidays Extra-Special This Year
While the pandemic has slowed everyone down this year, style icon Olivia Palermo has kept busy running her eponymous lifestyle brand, setting timeless trends, and staying connected with her nearly 6.5 million Instagram followers. For her, being home for the holidays this year means going the extra mile to transform her home into a festive winter wonderland, carving out meaningful moments with loved ones—even if it's via Zoom—and taking time to reflect on this year and the many growth opportunities it has offered us. She's also finding the good in having to stay put in the States for the holidays instead of enjoying an international celebration like usual.
"The last few years have been relatively warm during Christmas in New York City, so a picture-perfect holiday would definitely be a white Christmas for me," she says. "I'm just excited to take some time to focus on friends and family and find ways to give back—I think that's especially important this year. We all need to find that charity that speaks to us or intentionally reach out to a loved one in need so we can all better enjoy the holidays this year."
Part of creating the Christmas magic that the city is typically known for, but will have on a smaller scale this year in light of social distancing guidelines, is by welcoming it full-force into her home. The designer knows how to go big for the holidays, but with restraint, to create a festive yet stylish holiday abode.
"If I am home this year, I’ll be excited to have all my Christmas decor, and I always come up with different themes each year," Palermo says. "It’s important to get into the festivity of it all regardless, and we’ve all found ways to adapt virtually this year. My best friends all live in Europe, but we can still set beautiful tables to admire at our virtual dinner parties. I love to place berries or pine cones down the center of the table and add some beautiful red flowers to make it even more festive. I get a lot of great inspiration from my girlfriend, Alice Naylor-Leyland, for creative tables."
Palermo says she never waits to add to her holiday decor collection and keeps her eye out for special items year-round, especially when she's visiting Europe's incredible vintage markets. While she hasn't gotten to do much of that this year, she says there are some amazing online sources for creating that vintage European Christmas look at home.
Just like her holiday table, the style maven is also not sacrificing on curating a festive Christmas ensemble, even if no one besides her husband will see it in person. It's important to balance comfort with a look that makes your virtual Christmas party or feast for two feel like the special event it really is.
"You can still keep things elevated at home this year—and I’d say it's especially important to do so. I love to wear some festive...bejeweled flats and with an amazing skirt, and pair them with a fun statement necklace to 'zhoosh' things up. You also can’t go wrong with some tasseled flats paired with a great trouser and sweater, topped off with a fun Champagne brooch. I love to hunt of finding some great vintage ones online."
Palermo recently partnered with LG Signature to fill her house with some top entertaining essentials, like a swanky wine cellar for holding her favorite bottles of Chianti and an ultra-sleek 8K OLED TV for watching her go-to holiday films—The Holiday, the original Miracle on 34th Street, and the James Bond series, in particular.
When it comes to curating a menu as fabulous as her tablescape (and outfit), Palermo says she loves sourcing festive cocktail inspiration from one of her favorite mixologists, Cody Goldstein of Muddling Memories. Otherwise, she says you can never go wrong with a bottle of an Italian red and an Amaretto on ice for a post-dinner libation.
"I love that people are tending to do their own thing for Christmas dinner more than ever," she says. "I always love grabbing some items from Butterfield, my favorite place to get holiday foods uptown, but my husband has been spending a lot of time learning to cook this year, especially Italian food, so maybe we will try something new."
Just as she's taught us how to turn a mask into a fashion statement and is currently offering great layering inspo that will help us stay polished and cozy as we learn to entertain and dine outdoors in cooler temperatures, Palermo is full of ideas for ensuring this holiday season at home will be as chic as ever. Whether it's laying down garbage bags throughout her home so she can sprinkle fake snow across her apartment or curating a fabulous cocktail party ensemble, she always knows how to blend the aspirational and approachable, and we can't wait to see more of her styling tips this holiday season.
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