The Kappa Kappa Gamma Holiday Homes Tour decks the halls of architecturally significant homes with festive finery by Kansas City’s most gifted floral designers, all in support of worthy causes. The tour is also a great opportunity to pick up tips on making our own holiday homes merry and bright.
Information on the 2023 Tour
Since 1951, the Kappa Kappa Gamma Holiday Homes Tour has transported us to a winter wonderland where all is merry and bright. This year, from December 6 through 7, Kansas City’s top florists and designers will show us how to put a little holiday spirit in every room.
Oh, Christmas Tree. . .
The tall Christmas tree in Travis and Amy Hiles’s Kansas City Tudor home seems to glow from within. And that’s by design. “Lighting is so important,” says designer Katie Laughridge of Nell Hill’s. “Wrap lights around the tree from the bottom up, around each branch,” she suggests. Amidst the glow, cherished Christopher Radko ornaments hang from velvet ribbons, while a vintage tree skirt, garlands, and sprays of faux red berries complete the look.
Laughridge added a few more holiday “moments.” A collection of Christmas houses and bottle-brush trees sits atop a radiator. A garland of faux greenery, baubles, and ribbons draws your eye up the staircase. On the dining table, one of Nell Hill’s signature place settings combines white and silver chargers, pink velvet ruffled placemats, cupcake plates with a cloche on top, and garlands down the table. “Using faux greenery gives you the gift of time,” says Laughridge. “You can put up your decorations earlier and leave them up longer.”
Season’s Greetings
For longtime client Lynne Beaver’s home in Mission Hills, Chuck Matney of The Little Flower Shop celebrated the holiday season with winter’s finest florals, from fresh greenery to amaryllis, poinsettias, sprays of red winterberry, colorful ranunculus, hellebores, and white narcissus that will scent a room. “I love using fresh for the look and the fragrance,” he says. “I knew Lynne already had a great collection of Christmas decorations, so we were able to simply enhance that.”
Winter flowering plants bring a festive feel to every room of the house, from the winterberry branches in the blue-and-white china vases on the kitchen island, to the individual bouquets at each place setting in the dining room, parrot tulips in the primary bedroom, and the arrangement on the hall console table that greets you. A fresh evergreen tree, topped with a gold star, holds keepsake treasures and spurs the homeowner on to make new memories.
Deck the Halls
For Mark and Valerie Brandmeyer’s Fairway home in classic coastal colors, the team from Studio Dan Meiners added pops of color and a little fun, starting with a fabulous fuchsia reindeer taking center stage. An exuberant garland of pink, blue, and white ornaments and ribbons cascade down a staircase. The flocked tree in the living room adds other references to the seaside—coral and seashells. The second flocked tree in the primary bedroom keeps it quiet with blue globes, tiny wooden figures, and snowflakes. “Keep your mind open to adding a new twist to your traditional décor, maybe a little outside your comfort zone, so it feels fresh and inviting,” Meiners suggests.
“Another key to holiday décor is how you store it for the next year,” he says. “Ornament boxes with cardboard in-between work like a dream. And I always store the tree topper on top.”
Making Spirits Bright
For the Mission Hills Georgian owned by Brett and Michele Oettmeier, Chuck Matney of The Little Flower Shop went full-on Christmas. Illuminated glass trees glow on mantels and tables, wreaths of shiny baubles glitter, fresh magnolia leaves mixed with faux take your eye up to a large beribboned wreath above the fireplace, and tiny white lights make the greenery garlands sparkle day and night. Even in a room of subdued olive and coral and brown, “All the decor is essentially green and white with lights,” he says. “You can never go wrong with that for the holidays.”
On the kitchen island, a vase of greenery with pops of red amaryllis and New Zealand peonies stands near a Santa in charge. They lead the way to the dining table set with charming little gingerbread houses, burgundy glasses, and faux winter trees at every place.