According to Kathy Hilton, There’s One Thing You Should Never Put on a Holiday Table – Plus, What She Swears By Instead

‘I don’t like fake garland on the table,’ Kathy Hilton tells me, sitting beside a coat rack overflowing with red, fur-trimmed robes in her QVC ‘Holiday House.’ At home in Beverly Hills, she’s the hostess known for soirées that stretch into robe-clad, after-hours conversations. But today, she’s traded California sun for a climate more apropos of the North Pole in New York City, stepping fully into her QVC alter ego: the retailer’s resident Mrs. Claus.

Although fake garland is probably the tackiest thing Kathy can imagine on a Christmas table, she – like her impressively real-looking travel jewelry collection with Anna Zuckerman – absolutely makes room for good faux when it counts. In fact, she prefers a faux fir over the real thing.

‘I do use artificial trees because I start my decorating early,’ she tells me. She has, wait for it, a total of 20 faux firs in her possession. And they’re all from the same brand: ‘Bethlehem Lights,’ she says. ‘The trees are insane,’ noting that she’s used hers for over a decade.

But the thing about faux Christmas trees – no matter how convincing the needles or how ‘life-like’ the branches – is that they simply don’t smell like the real thing. Kathy could hack the system with an evergreen candle, but she famously lives in the 90210, a ZIP code where Erewhon is infinitely easier to source than anything resembling a forest. So she leans into holiday scents that feel authentic to her: good booze and decadent treats. Think apple butter, cinnamon sugar, warm apple brandy, and buttered vanilla – all captured inside a gleaming, gold-check vessel she created with Slatkin + Co.

‘It makes the tree,’ she says of her fastidious tree-to-candle ratio. The bigger the candle, the more convincing. ‘You think that you’re in a room with a real tree!’ And when guests are finally up close – close enough to clock real versus faux foliage – they sit down to exclusively real garland. Most (if not all) assume all 20 trees are real. Kathy completes the illusion by layering fresh foliage onto the holiday table, too. ‘I have little bouquets and flowers like roses with the ribbon and cinnamon sticks and orange. It looks really pretty.’

And if you’re wondering whether Kathy ever gets stressed before hosting… she doesn’t. She’s already several steps ahead of most Mrs. Claus archetypes. She doesn’t just set the table and lay out the linens – she steams them. ‘Just to have things ready, you know?’

Her holiday prep starts days in advance. ‘Anytime I am entertaining, I like to get things organized three days before. So I’ll put out all the silver that I’m gonna use. All the crystal. And I tape little post-it notes,’ she says, marking what goes where so she – and any holiday helpers – know the plan. She’ll delegate, of course, but the mission-critical moments (like adding the cream and butter to the mashed potatoes) are reserved for Mrs. Claus and Mrs. Claus only.

We can only dream of an invite to Kathy’s Beverly Hills residence this time of year – or anytime, frankly – but if you’re curious what it looks like, two words: red and pink. She swears it’s her favorite Christmas color combination.

Elsewhere, she’s lining her home with small handmade Christmas wreaths. Kathy tucks them everywhere, edging them with candles and the occasional vintage trinket – 'little dolls, little toys' that she loves to hunt on Etsy and eBay, though she admits nothing rivals the thrill of finding them in person at antique markets in London, Paris, or New York. ‘I wish I were going to be here longer, because I would be sneaking around,’ she says, already mourning tomorrow’s flight back to LA. ‘I like that old look rather than a brand new Christmas.'

Ahead, shop the old-timey elegance Mrs. Hilton, Mrs. Claus, is known for, and smuggle a bit of Beverly Hills holiday glamour into your own home.

‘Have some extra little gifts on hand if somebody brings somebody. Always,’ Kathy Hilton tells me of her cardinal hosting rule. No one leaves empty-handed, even if you didn’t know they were coming. ‘It’s very embarrassing if you don’t have something.’

Her fail-safe parting gift (to give or receive) is always a candle. ‘I love a sandalwood. I love peppermint for the holidays, and the smell of cedar. Oh, I love a beautiful floral.’ Fortunately, there’s no shortage of any of the above in our edit of the season’s best candles.