Cover Holiday feels in the de los Reyes home
Holiday feels in the de los Reyes home
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A restrained holiday scheme shaped by familiar rituals, handmade pieces and inherited objects
In Architect Miko de los Reyes’s home, holiday decorating is approached with the same care as architecture itself: familiar rituals, handmade details and inherited pieces arranged with restraint. The result is festive and traditional but ultimately rooted in family.
Holiday decorating in the de los Reyes home feels closer to a long conversation than a seasonal reset. Nothing arrives all at once, and very little is new. Objects have been picked up, inherited or made over time, often tied to specific places or people, and they reappear each year in slightly different arrangements. There’s a fondness for recognisable holiday cues. Still, they’re handled lightly, anchored by a recurring blue palette, nudged along by whatever feels right that year, and always negotiated with the existing architecture rather than imposed on it.
What keeps it from tipping into either excess or sentimentality is a strong instinct for editing. Greenery already does much of the visual work, so decorations are added sparingly, with an eye toward balance rather than abundance. Trends are largely beside the point; longevity matters more, as does the pleasure of reuse, borrowing, and making things by hand. In that sense, the holidays don’t interrupt domestic order so much as test its flexibility, how a house can stretch to accommodate ritual, warmth and a little improvisation, without losing its composure. Tatler corresponds with de los Reyes to enquire about his decorating process.
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Above Their beautiful daughter stands in a dress that echoes the home decor’s sky blue details
Above A beautiful white Christmas tree
Their beautiful daughter stands in a dress that echoes the home decor’s sky blue details
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Your holiday decor leans into recognisable traditions rather than reinterpretations. What draws you to classic festive codes, and how do you prevent them from tipping into nostalgia for its own sake?
Our holiday decor comes from things we’ve collected over the years since we moved into our home in 2020. When it comes to choosing decor, we like a mix of both classic and contemporary, and incorporating locally made pieces and pieces taken from our designs. For example, this year, we made use of pine cones gathered from our house in Tagaytay, and we have three stars made from branches that we made ourselves that we hang on our balcony every year. Of course, it’s important that it also goes with the style of our home.
For the living spaces, the focal colour is blue, so that has been the uniting theme of our holiday decor over the years. So, in a way, we have a “blue tradition.”
Each year, we try to do something different from the year before, mixing and matching borrowed items from family members to change things up a little. Some of the decor that we have was passed down from Nicole’s great-grandmother. We’re happy to be able to use it in our home, for sentimental reasons.
Our first year, we had a blue and white theme, with twigs that we got from our garden and painted. Last year, we went with a blue palette again, this time refreshed with fresh pinks to make it feel new. This year, we still have blue in the garlands around our stairs and in our vignettes, but for our tree, we opted for whites, greens and shades of neutral and brown.
See also: Creative Christmas trees inside some of Manila’s most stylish homes
Above Father Christmas stands in front of a Filipino parol
Above Reindeer in natural fibre
Father Christmas stands in front of a Filipino parol
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The home carries unmistakable seasonal markers, yet nothing feels excessive. How do you decide when a gesture is celebratory enough, and when it begins to distract from the architecture itself?
Plants, both indoor and outdoor, are a main feature in our home all year round, and this is where the impulse to “avoid excess” might stem from, because we don’t want the natural environment to become unbalanced by incorporating too many artificial elements.
We are drawn to the idea of creating and putting things together in a way that feels just enough and comes together organically.
Many of the materials and objects you’ve chosen for the holidays feel enduring. Was longevity part of your thinking, choosing pieces that belong to the house year after year rather than a single season?
We don’t follow trends. Our decor is a reflection of our own taste and style, and we’re always slowly yet constantly adding to and building our collection of holiday decor in a way that feels true to us.
Some of this feels “classic,” because we like holding on to things and do not like to waste or throw stuff away. There’s also a “DIY” quality to our decor, since what we can’t buy, we also try to make ourselves.
Above The staircase at night glowing with fairy lights
The staircase at night glowing with fairy lights
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As an architect, you’re trained to curate relentlessly. During the holidays, when abundance is culturally encouraged, where do you allow yourself to loosen that discipline, if at all?
Because I’m an architect, I come up with a vision or a concept before I start decorating, and this is what guides the design process, and also shows me what should be included and what shouldn’t. I think of what we already have, what I can borrow and what I can make, so I don’t have to buy too many things. It’s also a fun learning process every time.
Finally, do you see holiday decorating as an interruption to everyday domestic order, or as a moment when a home is allowed to fully reveal its capacity for warmth, ritual and generosity?
Christmas offers an opportunity to transform and enhance our home spaces in a way that feels new, and I look forward to it every year. I enjoy the process of experimenting and trying new things, but also using things we already own or creating decor from things found in our garden.
For me, it doesn’t interfere with the everyday order of our home at all. It’s a tradition that we are hoping to continue and build for the years to come.
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