San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Traditions and innovation at holiday Filoli
For many on the Bay Area Peninsula, the year isn’t complete without a visit to Filoli. The 107-year-old historic landmark in Woodside is best remembered in popular culture as the stately mansion used in the 1980s prime-time soap opera “Dynasty,” but locals know that the Willis Polkdesigned Georgian Revival house and 16 acres of majestic English Renaissance style gardens get transformed into a holiday wonderland every November.
“When people come, they expect us to live up to our motto,” said Kevin Wisney, Filoli’s director of museums collections and curator. “The holidays at Filoli aren’t done until they’re overdone.”
At the helm of the seasonal transformation are Wisney, who is also in charge of decorating the interior of the house, and formal garden manager Haley O’Connor, who oversees the outdoors. Since the estate was gifted to California by Lurline Matson Roth and opened to the public as a nonprofit in 1975, spectacular holiday decor has been a staple. Both the gardens and house are decked out with ornaments, garlands and lights in a process that takes almost the entire month of November.
In 2017, after decades of clearing the house of furniture to host a 10-day holiday market, leadership decided instead to make up the house in situ, with designs inspired by the existing schemes in each room utilizing Roth family treasures. This
also allowed the house and grounds to be open during November while the decorations are installed, bringing visitors inside the process.
Outdoors, shrubs, trees and flora are illuminated like a winter fairy kingdom. The effect indoors is simultaneously ornately maximalist and yet cozy. You can almost imagine family members sipping eggnog and tearing open presents on Christmas morning.
To make the holidays happen at Filoli, dozens of staff and volunteers are required as decoration consists of 3,200 feet of garlands; 3,600 strands of lights (stretching more than 20 miles) with 159,600 individual light bulbs; 62 wreaths; 26 Christmas trees; more than 7,000 ornaments (which require their own spreadsheet); and hundreds of wrapped presents.
“We have also doubled our number of lights from last year with the addition of a 210-foot light tunnel,” said O’Connor.
For the first time this year, Filoli is working with the team at Bay Area Holiday Lights on illumination, including a change over to more sustainable low-voltage strands that are better suited for the updated, but still antique, electrical infrastructure of the estate.
Wisney has worked at Filoli for five years, while O’Connor has for three. Among the special moments they agreed are most fondly anticipated by visitors are strolling the gardens with cider and warming up next to one of the many fire pits while taking in the views of the surrounding foothills.
While balancing the history of the estate with the present is always a priority at Filoli, during the holidays there’s an extra emphasis on honoring tradition while still bringing something new for returning visitors year after year. This year, Wisney is doing that by bringing out some of Roth’s midcentury modern art, which has stayed in the house’s collection — a very on-trend move for 2022.
For O’Connor, her favorite part of working on the holiday plans is the collaboration across departments and coming together with colleagues. Wisney admits that sometimes during the season, he will take off his badge and sneak around the house and gardens to absorb some of the “yummy feelings” he gets as visitors ooh and ah.