What to my wondering eyes: Donna Preiss credits her sister-in-law Susan Pardue with masterminding the upside-down tree, which was inspired several years ago by one they’d heard Andy Griffith had at his home. “Now, you can buy trees like this,” Preiss says, but hers took Pardue and six other people eight hours to construct. It has two plumbing pipes down the middle for support, and branches strung up individually by hand so they won’t flop down. Its whimsy is reflected in its decorations: “This is a Mardi Gras tree, a party tree,” Preiss says.
by Liza Roberts
photographs by Carla and Kristopher Williams
Christmas time at Donna and Kirk Preiss’s house is a fairy tale – an enchanting story with 1,500 characters. Each is an ornament on one of the Preiss’s 13 Christmas trees, and each has a story of its own.
Collected in far-flung spots and places close to home, most of these decorations are not ornaments at all. In the eyes of Donna Preiss, though, anything beautiful, interesting, or hand-made is perfect for the job. Together the collection forms a travelogue, diary, and self-portrait in three dimensions.
There are prayer wheels from the mountains of Kathmandu and painted eggs from Prague. There are wintery scenes from the White House and handmade kids’ creations. There are rickshaws from the Cu Chi tunnels under Ho Chi Minh City and toys from Angor Wat. There are blown glass balls from Murano and jewelry made by Masai. Camels from Udaipur hang next to children’s hats from Chiang Mai. Chilean dolls and Tibetan bells and Vietnamese lanterns make colorful neighbors. One tree is home to a flock of angels from European churches. Two others are bedecked with yard art collected in the mountains of North Carolina, Colorado, and Austin, Texas.
The dining room tree is covered with dozens of Christopher Radko ornaments and at least 80 made by Baldwin Brass. Every one of the annual commemorative ornaments issued by the White House since it began the tradition in 1981 are also here. Donna Preiss says that as a history major, she finds them “really special.”
Put together in all of its sparkling, festive glory, the collection and the trees that hold it represents an annual moment of fantasy and celebration for a woman who spends most of the rest of the year running and growing a major company. “My whole life has been very efficient,” says Donna Preiss, founder and chief executive of Raleigh-based The Preiss Company, the fourth-largest privately held student housing provider in the country. “I’m ambitious, I work hard. This is the time of year that I get to try to do something just for fun…to celebrate the season with friends.”
It’s a tradition that lives on yearlong as she collects the objects on her travels that will become ornaments on her trees. The trees themselves began to multiply several years ago when there wasn’t room on the branches for all of the treasures the Preisses had collected. This year alone the couple has added two trees to last year’s 11.
It’s not just the Preiss’s extensive travels that are represented. There are ornaments made by their children when they were little, some the couple had on their family trees growing up, and countless ornaments they’ve been given by friends.
Helping to keep the many-pieced extravaganza organized, pulled together, and stylish is Donna Preiss’s able sister-in-law Susan Pardue, an interior designer and event planner. “She has an ability to take simple things and make them look really special,” Preiss says. She’s grateful for the help with a project that means a good deal to her and is constantly growing: “When you decide you’re using trees as canvases of your life, it mushrooms very quickly.”
The two trees on the porch are decorated with yard art found in the North Carolina mountains, in Colorado, and in Texas.
The front hall of the Preiss’s handsome Hayes Barton home, built in the 1920s, is bedecked for Christmas. The railing has a stocking for every member of the family, including the Preiss’s parents.
Happy Christmas to all: Donna and Kirk Preiss began collecting Christmas ornaments decades ago. Each one is a story, she says, and “life’s all about stories.” She loves the chance to check in with each one at this time of year. “I’ve always loved Christmas,” she says, and the chance to entertain among her favorite things. The couple often throws three or four dinner parties during the festive season, plus a big party for more than 100 guests.
Preiss (left) credits Pardue (right), an interior designer and event planner, with helping her turn the many unlikely treasures Preiss collects on her travels into Christmas ornaments. Here, the two admire their work on the living room tree, which holds at least 300 ornaments. Many on this tree are annual commemorative ornaments and have been given by friends. “These are the ones that actually look like ornaments,” Donna Preiss says.
