BIG ON TRADITION

IN HER HOLIDAY CELEBRATIONS AND HER HOME, A DESIGNER EMBRACES CONVENTION WITH A NUDGE TO MODERN TIMES

- JODY GARLOCK

Holiday traditions run deep for designer Amy Adams. When the Christmas trees go up in her Charlotte, North Carolina, home, the framed sepia-tone family photos and silver bell ornaments collected over the decades go on the boughs. There's always beef tenderloin and an eggnog trifle for Christmas Eve dinner.

On Christmas Day, it's breakfast casserole and cinnamon cake for brunch. And, of course, there are cookies, the sweet result of Amy's baking sessions with her 15-year-old daughter.

"My kitchen is covered in sugar and icing," Amy says. "We've never quite perfected them-it's more about the memories."

Tradition also threads through Amy's design aesthetic, albeit with twists. That starts with the English manor-style house itself. Built in 2019, the white brick structure with Dutch gables along the roofline could pass for one of the century-old homes in the historical neighborhood.

"It's a new build, but it needed to fit in with the look and feel of the other houses," Amy says.