OVER THE YEARS,

I’ve become a much more relaxed entertainer,” says designer Alessandra Branca. “I’ve learned that what really matters is bringing people together, so I like to focus on setting the stage and letting everyone else fill it with their bubbly laughter.”

The Roman expat was a young bride when she and her husband, Steve Uihlein, began hosting Christmas Eve dinner for close friends and family. “It’s been our tradition since we were newlyweds. Drinks are served at six, dinner at eight thirty, followed by gift opening, and guests are on their way by midnight to beat Santa home. We mix up all the different generations, and everyone sits together at one long table. Of course, there are close to 20 of us now, so it’s getting a bit tight.”

They convene at the couple’s historic downtown Chicago townhome, where Branca and Uihlein have lived since 1990 and raised their three children. It was built in 1872, just a year after the Great Chicago Fire, by business tycoon Potter Palmer (of Palmer House hotel

“We often sit around the living room and pull out all our treasured family ornaments, from those I had as a young bride to gifts from loved ones now gone but thankfully still in our memories,” says Branca, shown with (from left) daughter-in-law Georgia Uihlein, daughter Anna Lucia Uihlein, and son Andrew Uihlein.

“My children and godchildren like to dress up this 19th-century bust of Julius Caesar for various occasions. This Christmas, with mistletoe dangling above him, he wears a note that says, ‘Kiss me, I am Roman.’ ” FAR RIGHT: Cestino tray, Casa Branca

“Red is life!” says Branca, whose plaid-draped holiday table flourishes in the company of glazed dining room walls that “lend themselves perfectly to this time of year.”