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sorts of my favorite Christmas delicacies: beef tenderloin, tamales, gumbo, cheese souffles, Christmas petits fours." Each season, she enlists decorating help from Margaret Ryder of Kane & Co. "I like a very old-fashioned, Colonial American style of decorating for Christmas," Kincaid says. Step past the green-lacquered front door wreathed in magnolia and pine branches tied with green apples, and you'll find yourself in a delightful foyer, converted from a porch. Now with a large steel window, Ann Sacks marble mosaic floor tiles, and potted citrus trees, the entryway feels like a sunny winter orangery. A 19th-century French bench and Moroccan table display potted paperwhites and amaryllis, which she forces at Thanksgiving so they're blooming by Christmas. Perfumed by lemon and orange trees and paperwhites, the house smells divine. A pair of blue-and-white lamps from her collection of old Chinese export porcelains is tucked into a lavish holiday vignette on an antique console. "Blue-and-white porcelains can be summery and beachy on their own, but they look great at Christmas with red and green," she says. During the holidays, Kincaid's house is packed with family, including her nine grandchildren. A favorite hangout is the breakfast room, a sunny spot near the kitchen with an Eero Saarinen Tulip table and a large painting of a watermelon by Julio Larraz, part of Kincaid's collection of still lifes. For more formal meals, everyone moves into the dining room, where she sets a sparkling table with china, crystal, and silver — some of which belonged to her mother, and some that she received when she married. For years, Kincaid had kept it all boxed up; she didn't really like her 1970s wedding china until recently, and her mother's plates reminded her of having to wash the dishes during the holidays as a child. "But now I think it's beautiful," she says. "I love it all." The dining room's fireplace mantel is lavishly swagged in pine branches and garlands of mini tangerines and kumquats. "They ripen, and you have to refresh them a few times during the month, but they're worth it. I can smell them all over the house." On Christmas Eve, the family gathers in the living room, where there's another fire going and a tree as tall as Kincaid herself twinkling in the window. "It's a small room, but I can seat a lot of people, and everyone is close enough that you can all be in one big conversation," she says. The right chairs are essential for a room with more Swagged with kumquats, tangerines, and pine branches, the carved fireplace was made by Casci Ornamental Plaster and painted in Farrow & Ball French Gray. Elizabeth Eakins Studio rug. The French Louis Philippe dining table seats 12 for large family dinners. Kincaid found the Country French chairs at Pierre Deux in New York City years ago, after seeing them on the cover of Gourmet magazine. Swedish 1850s chandelier. (Continued)