THE CHRISTMAS ROOM
“My sons used to say that we never used the living room except for Christmas, so they
used to call it the Christmas room,” she says. The decorations in it have to meet a strict
standard: They each have to hold personal meaning to the family. For example, an orna-
ment of a baseball player represents a son’s first home run in Little League; another baseball
player commemorates when a son went to Cooperstown to play. A cell phone reminds the
family that Yarnell’s husband Ken “has to have been one of the first people to own one,”
says Yarnell, while a menorah is there for Yarnell’s brother’s twin grandchildren, who are
Jewish. Ornaments culled over years of travels hang beside flags from countries the younger
Yarnell son has ventured to as a diplomat in the State Department.
MILLBURN & SHORT HILLS MAGAZINE HOLIDAY 2017
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