STATELY CHEER

Festive yet admirably curated, this room in a historic New York City apartment is set for celebration of the winter holidays.

- By Regina Cole / Photos by Kirsten Francis

“Christmas has always been a big deal for me,” says Scott Francis. “My grandmother celebrated in a major way. She was 50% Italian, but at Christmas, it became 100%. She passed that down to my mother, who also loved the holidays. When I was a kid, I’d help her decorate.”

Every December, Scott Francis and Mike Fabbri host a splendid holiday party in their Gramercy Park apartment. They work as realtors, but Scott is also an interior designer; when it comes to making their home festive, he goes all out, decorating the one-bedroom, 1,000 square-foot abode the couple share on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. The 1910 building was initially a single-family townhouse.