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Interior designer Beth Scherr
A Modern Setting for the Festival of Lights
One of the most joyous holidays on the Jewish calendar, Hanukkah, Dec. 22-30 this year, is celebrated at home with family and friends. The eight-day Festival of Lights commemorates the Maccabees’ victory in 168 B.C. over the Syrian army and its king’s attempt to quash the practice of Judaism, and the rededication of the temple in Jerusalem, when a tiny jar of oil, seemingly enough for just one day, illuminated the golden menorah for eight.
“By lighting the menorah, we remember that light overcomes the darkness in this world,” says Beth Scherr, the designer who created this radiant setting for a family gathering at her sister Melissa Brownstein’s West End home. “Hanukkah is about being together with family and friends and celebrating the freedom to follow our traditions by sharing a special meal, which, in our family, always includes traditional holiday dishes like potato latkes.”
Scherr’s thoroughly modern Hanukkah table is set with her Midcentury Rosenthal china, passed down by her hip mom, and illuminated by a gold menorah, turquoise votives and golden accents. Vintage Jonathan Adler lucite dreidels are set out for an after-dinner game. Each night, one candle is added to the menorah, which is lit from left to right using the shammash (helper candle) at the center.
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Interior designer Brooke Chappell
A Karamu for Kwanzaa
A cultural holiday created in 1966 as a celebration of African American heritage, Kwanzaa, Dec. 26 to Jan.1 this year, traces its roots to ancient African traditions of marking the first harvest of the season with a feast. Celebrated at home with family and friends, Kwanzaa focuses on a different principle each day: unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity, and faith.
“Kwanzaa is a time for togetherness with family and giving thanks for our collective well-being,” says interior designer Brooke Chappell, who created this sumptuous setting for a traditional karamu, or feast, in her client’s Woodland Heights home. “Although Kwanzaa festivities vary from family to family, the foods served — their favorite African American, African and Caribbean dishes — play an important role in every celebration.”
Chappell’s karamu table is decorated, as is the tradition, with fruits, nuts and vegetables; African fabrics; a unity cup; and a kinara, a seven-branch candelabra with a black candle (symbolizing the people) at the center, red candles (unity) on the left, and green candles (the rich land of Africa) on the right. The kinara is lit from left to right, beginning with the black candle on the first night and adding one each evening until the kinara is complete.
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Designer Janet Brown
Auld Lang Syne
The most celebrated holiday in the world is also the oldest. The ancient Babylonians began making New Year’s resolutions on the first moon following the vernal equinox in 2000 BCE. Julius Caesar picked Jan. 1 as the first day of the year to honor Janus, the Roman god of new beginnings, and Pope Gregory XIII made it official in 1582. New Year’s festivities vary around the world, but most include friends and loved ones, parties, fireworks, resolutions and a kiss at midnight.
Designer Janet Brown created this elegant setting for an intimate New Year’s Eve supper in the North Side home of her friend and client Leslie Stack. “We celebrate New Year’s Eve — also her wedding anniversary — with a special dinner party for family and friends every year,” Brown says. The inspiration behind her design is travel. “I love to travel and hearing about my friends’ travels, so my table highlights traditions of good luck from around the world.”
Brown mixed green and white china patterns with gold-rimmed glass chargers and unmatched crystal stemware with sterling silver flatware and accessorized each setting with an object symbolizing a different New Year’s tradition. A Victorian mantel clock, antique carriage clocks and clock faces used as napkin rings reference the passage of time. Lush floral arrangements float above the table without impeding the conversation.
