Christmastime is here at theHarris-Burtka household— and the family go all out decorating their stunning five-story brownstone in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan.
Neil Patrick Harris, 46, and his husband, chef David Burtka, 44, whohave been married since 2014, recently opened up their family home toarchdigest.comto show offtheir magical holiday decor, which they take great care in setting up themselves ahead oftheir annual Christmas party.
According to Burtka, Harris is best at building the trees and trimming them with lights — they switched to artificial trees a few years ago, claiming it’s hard to findfresh ones in the city big enough for their high ceilings— whilethe cookbook authoris in charge of “the garlands, the tablescapes and the flowers.”
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Gieves Anderson
Every year, they set up antique snowflakes and nutcrackers — just a few of the decorations that have been with the pair for as long as they can remember.
“We’ve been together for over 15 years, which is a lot of holidays,” Harris says. “And every holiday you wind up buying a throw pillow, a new Nutcracker, or something. And we’ve kept it all.”
Burtka’s hosting skills certainly come into play for the couple’s annual Christmas bash. The party is held in their music room, one of the more formal rooms in the house, which they decorate with a 12-foot-tall tree fromBalsam Hill. The event, Harris says, typically ends with a lavish round of White Elephant gifting.
“I love hosting games,” Harris tellsAD. “It’s a very friendly one and everyone brings an expensive-ish gift so that everyone is relatively happy. The holiday party, for us, is a good opportunity to get to reconnect with people that we haven’t seen in a long time.”
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While the time and effort they put intodecorating for the holidays may seem extravagant to some, Harris and Burtka tellADthat the setting up for Christmas is just as important to them as the day itself — because it means they get to work together to build something special.
“That’s what I like about Christmas, the time spent putting it all together,” Harris says. Burtka agrees with his husband: “I’ve learned that I love doing this with you, and I love doing it together.”
Read more about Harris and Burtka’s holidays atarchdigest.com.
source: people.com
