If anyone was wondering whether last year’s ‘Ralph Lauren Christmas’ trend would carry into 2026, Shea McGee’s new horsey, heritage-inspired holiday collection for Target may have settled the matter. The lineup of old-timey Americana, tartan taffetas, aged brass, and ornate details looks as though it could have been plucked straight from the Bedford estate of the man himself. Never mind that most of it costs less than $40.
Shea might live in Salt Lake City, but the spirit of the New England elite is alive and well in her metallic stocking hangers, finished with intricately braided edges. The detail is a Studio McGee signature, but alongside wall art depicting an actual (and rather festive) thoroughbred in a coordinating frame, it takes on a decidedly equine air. Elsewhere, four-tiered Christmas trees in aged wood feature delicate scalloped engravings, adding a little texture to the mantel or tabletop. Etched-glass hurricanes, meanwhile, keep the analog candlelight going and remind us of the wealthy grandmother we never had, who collected the figurines decades ago and guarded them in her china cabinet, awaiting their annual December debut.
Still, the best-dressed thing at any Ralph Lauren-style holiday party isn’t the gallery wall, or even the guest who has managed to pop the most polo collars at once. Shea reserves that distinction for the Christmas tree, dressed in humble dried-orange garlands in lieu of the usual white lights, alongside cotton ornaments intricately embellished in the shapes of evergreens, stars, houses, and classic bells. Shiny beads catch the light, suspended from equally elaborate gold-tone loops.
Shea McGee is having a horse girl winter. Equestrian wall art, etched-glass holiday houses, and red berry branches in chinoiserie ceramics ooze the old-timey, collected charm that, nearly 60 years into Ralph Lauren’s reign, remains the zenith of good taste.
Shea’s heritage homage is both the most traditional version of Christmas ever and a reminder of how many of its familiar trappings we somehow don’t already own. Whether or not the Ralph Lauren Christmas craze survives another year, it’s difficult to imagine tiring of holiday decor this timeless.
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