Holiday Tables by a Man Who Knows His Settings

Keep Christmas in your own way, and let me keep it in mine.

--Charles Dickens,

“A Christmas Carol”

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It has been nearly two decades since John Loring and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis dreamed up “A Tiffany Christmas,” a new book from Doubleday.

And it has taken that many years to acquire the dozens of photographs featured in the 165-page book, a collection of elaborate and whimsical holiday table settings described by Loring.

“Mrs. Onassis and I began gathering the photographs 17 years ago, but I defy anyone to tell the old from the new,” said the design director of Tiffany & Co. during a dinner last week at the Ritz in Newport Beach. Loring, 57, was in Orange County for book-related appearances at Tiffany & Co. in Costa Mesa and the Bowers Museum of Cultural Art in Santa Ana.

“During our years together, we worked on six books, and ‘A Tiffany Christmas’ was right up there on the list with ‘Tiffany Flowers,’ ‘Tiffany Travels’--books we also planned to do,” he said.

Together--Onassis was Loring’s editor--they worked on six books, including “Tiffany Parties” and “Tiffany Taste.”

“As far as we were concerned, they documented the look of the times, what people did at home to entertain,” he said.

“A Tiffany Christmas” features everything from actress Angela Lansbury’s English country celebration to singer Eartha Kitt’s decorative ode to “Santa Baby.”

“The message of the book is ‘Please look at all of the things that are possible, and then, please, do it your way,’ ” Loring said. “People should do things that look like themselves, their family. What they should not do is simply something they saw in a book.”

Loring’s own holiday celebration begins the moment Tiffany’s Fifth Avenue store closes on Christmas Eve. “I dash home and continue preparing the food for my dinner party,” said Loring, who has a Manhattan apartment. “All my friends and strays come for a very late dinner. At midnight, we open gifts.”

As he shared his style of holiday entertaining, Loring offered party-giving tips:

The guest list: “The secret to any great gathering is to have as diverse a guest list as possible--all age groups, all interests, people who have never seen each other before, people who adore each other because they’ve seen each other for years. This brings a sense of adventure to the table.”

The decor: “Every year, I go to Silk Surplus and buy new yardage--a wonderful stripe or plaid--to cover my table. My centerpiece is always a procession of small things like candles and ornaments. I want everybody to be able to see each other.”

Gift-giving: “Everyone gets a list of who’s coming, and they all have to bring a gift for everyone else--it doesn’t matter if it costs 50 cents.

“I love bears and last year my favorite gift came from a young Panamanian playwright. It was a soft drink bottle in the shape of a bear--a bank. I’ve filled it with pennies and now it’s a great paperweight. Sometimes our gift exchanges last until 4 a.m. Everybody has to watch everybody else open each gift.”

Entertainment: “I play those silly old CDs of holiday music. I think that’s what people expect and want, but the real entertainment is the guests--a group of people so eclectic there’s no way they would ever find themselves together for a meal.”

The meal: “I serve red and black caviar over an Italian-style white bean salad and a potato and beet root salad that I invented. This course goes on a long time, because it’s so delicious. And I serve several drinks, including champagne and Moscow Mules made with ginger beer, lime juice and vodka.

“My main course is roast duck baked atop braised sauerkraut that has been mixed with onions, carrots and juniper berries.

“Dessert is served amid a forest of trees on a sideboard--apple tarts, a graham cracker cake with pecans and almond frosting and chocolate cake. There has to be chocolate cake.”

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Priscilla Akins of San Juan Capistrano couldn’t wait to hear Loring speak about his new book Wednesday at the Bowers Museum of Cultural Art.

As president of its new Decorative Arts Council--which aims to educate members about home furnishings, antiques and gardens--she has a special interest in listening to arbiters of style.

“I’ve read all of Loring’s books,” Akins said. “He’s so creative and the books are so easy to enjoy. Everyone can collect old things and mix them with the new, which seems to be the way we are all decorating these days. Everyone can identify with the way he puts things together.”

Akins’ holiday entertaining features table settings that mix old and new linens and pieces of silver and china. Among the pieces: a set of four Tiffany candlesticks that belonged to her husband’s grandmother.

“I collect lots of different things, then mix them. The mix is what makes the magic,” she says.

The other ingredient key to a successful holiday gathering, says Loring, is enthusiasm on the part of the host or hostess.

“What I’m most enthusiastic about is my whole extended, adopted family of friends--from rich people to very poor people. Everybody is equal on these occasions; everybody enjoys everybody for his or her own merits.”