Ahwahnee: Holiday Decorating Stays True to Yosemite

By Shirley Armbruster
The Fresno Bee - December 11, 1999

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK - Does decorating your apartment or home for Christmas frighten you more than the Visa bill that arrives in January? Then you probably wouldn't ask to be in charge of decking the halls at the stately Ahwahnee Hotel.

But Richard Kollath and Ed McCann did. They begged for that assignment - and got it. The New York decorators this week completed festive holiday decorations that enhance the beauty and grandeur of the historic hotel.

This is the second season Kollath's and McCann's decorations enlivened the Ahwahnee, and the results of their work appear in the December edition of Country Living magazine, where they are contributing editors.

Their first visit last year led to the photos that were included in this month's magazine, which focuses on Christmas decorating ideas. An eight-page feature offers glimpses of their work and "make it at home" tips to re-create some of the decorations.

Using materials that reflect the natural history of Yosemite Valley and the native Miwok Indians, Kollath and McCann decorated Christmas trees, mantles, doorways and furniture.

Their touches are seen in the hotel entrance, lobby, solarium, Great Lounge, Winter Room, Mural Room and the entrance lobby to the dining room.

Brett A. Archer, Ahwahnee rooms operations manager, says the decorations draw raves from visitors and staff.

"It's just a very magical time of year here and this adds to it," says Archer, who praises the decorators' ability to "bring the outside in" with natural materials.

When Kollath and McCann completed their work at the Ahwahnee on Wednesday, they headed to the historic Wawona Hotel near the park's southern entrance, and will spend a week decorating it for Christmas. The Wawona opens Thursday and will remain open throughout the winter, a first for the hotel founded in 1856.

Kollath and McCann hadn't set foot in the Ahwahnee until two years ago. Once there, they fell in love with the hotel and Yosemite. The hotel's staff was decorating for Christmas, and the partners were captivated.

"Because the place is so beautiful, and with the magnitude and scale of it, we were inspired to take the idea to the editors of Country Living magazine to come back and decorate," McCann says.

McCann and Kollath prepared a room-by-room plan to decorate largely with materials that reflect what's found in Yosemite. National parks prohibit removing any natural materials, and that meant that flowers, plants, garland, pine cones, berries and even the Christmas trees had to come from outside the park.

Ahwahnee management approved their plans and the two decorators and a photographer went to work early last December.

More than 30 growers, suppliers, retailers and manufacturers - many from California or other parts of the West Coast - contributed items ranging from blooming plants to ribbons. The materials were donated in exchange for credit in the magazine.

"In a sense, it was a gift from Country Living to the hotel," Kollath says. "And the hotel returned that gift to us by asking us to come back this year."

McCann and Kollath say they "turned our backs" on commercial Christmas offerings because they wanted to show a sense of history and respect for nature.

"We're trying very hard to keep it natural and low-key, though opulent," says Kollath. "This structure is such a magnificent place to work within."

Among the natural materials the decorators chose were eucalyptus, pomegranates, manzanita, bay, pepper berries, mixed greens (cedar, juniper, pine), toyon (also called California holly), pine cones, oak leaves and grapevine and lichen balls.

Highlights of the decorators' work include:

• Lobby Christmas tree. Taking a cue from the hand-painted Indian-design border and the Indian mosaic floor tiles, the decorators created matching geometric disks and diamonds for ornaments. A string of old-fashioned lights with big colorful bulbs, handmade gilded oak leaves and pine cones also adorn the tree.
  
• Great Lounge entry. The doorway is draped with white lights and a garland formed from manzanita branches, gilded pine cones and polystyrene spheres covered in twigs and dried citrus peels.
  
• Winter room. The Christmas tree in here, traditionally a children's gingerbread tree, is simply decorated with old-fashioned lights and large acorn-shaped cookies created in Country Living's kitchen. (Kollath and McCann hand-carried the 150 cookies on the flight from New York.) The tree pays tribute to the primary food source of the Miwok Indians who inhabited Yosemite Valley. The tree is topped with a star covered in tiny crimson pepper berries.
  
• Dining room entrance lobby. Poinsettias, amaryllis and azaleas add splashes of color. The decorators group two or three plants together in birch bark baskets to create focal points throughout the room.
  
• Kollath and McCann also created a "family" of five topiary deer and placed them in the snowy field in front of the Ahwahnee. The deer must be quite realistic: Last year, one of the park's resident bucks approached the topiary buck with resin-cast antlers, checked it out then knocked it over.