Ten DC Restaurants With Really Festive Christmas Decor

Grid View

• Decorator extraordinaire William Watts has been creating the Christmas scenes at 1789 for 27 years. He’s retired now after 36 years with the Cyde’s Restaurant Group, but returns every year to decorate 1789. "I've always been fascinated with Christmas,” Wa
• Upstairs in 1789's Middleburg room, Watts spent five hours stringing vines along the ceiling, then hung white lights and hundreds of Christmas ornaments from the vines, as he’s done for the past 10 years.
• Watts works all year long to create wreaths, trees, and greenery with materials like painted crepe myrtle, faux berries, eucalyptus, faux fruits, and gilded Christmas balls. He’s even used avant garde materials like lobster bodies and spray-painted flatwa
• He always starts decorating 1789 the day after Thanksgiving, and this year’s install took him 9 days to finish, with an entire pick-up truck full of decor to load into the restaurant. The Christmas decorations stay up till the day after Epiphany.
• Watts brought in antique toys to decorate the dining room this year. Another festive touch: a choir of Christmas carolers sings at the restaurant every evening the restaurant is open in December. As you’d expect, Christmas Eve is one of the toughest day o
• Over at Filomena Ristorante in Georgetown, Christmas decorations are also a big deal. Staff at the restaurant guess that there are least 10,000 lights on the Christmas tree and countless ornaments.
• It takes three weeks to hang all the sparkly, sparkly decorations at Filomena.
• The Willard InterContinental hotel is famous for its Christmas decor, including a giant wreath and a 14-foot Christmas tree covered with White House Historical Association Christmas ornaments. After you take a gander, head to the Round Robin Bar for seaso
• Georgetown’s historic Martin’s Tavern hangs tons of quaint greenery and ribbons each year.
• Gigantic nutcrackers flank the entrance of Old Ebbitt Grill during the holidays. You’ll find similar nutcrackers at Clyde’s in Georgetown.
• At 2941, the Chef Bertrand Chemel-helmed restaurant in Falls Church, a Christmas tree decorated in bold shades of purple and gold is front and center as you enter the restaurant.
• A Christmas tree decked out with ornaments from embassies around town sits in The Madison’s lobby, right in front of The Federalist, the hotel's restaurant.
• Bayou Bakery is decked out this year with red poinsettas, and garland made by none other than chef David Guas and his sons. And since Guas is an avid motorcyclist, the pièce de résistance is a singing, motorcycle-riding Santa. The Santa sings "Born to be
• Every year, the Four Seasons hosts the Georgetown Jingle, a charity event where interior designers decorate Christmas trees to raise funds for the pediatric oncology program at Georgetown University Hospital. One of these designer trees is always statione
• There’s plenty of Christmas spirit — and red ribbon— outside Occidental Grill.

Our friends at Curbed shared some over-the-top Christmas decorations this month, and now it's Eater's turn. Check out the gallery for a peek at ten DC restaurants that go above and beyond when it comes to decking the halls. From oversize nutcrackers to singing Santas, we're highlighting the best in holiday decor — starting with the elegant decorations at 1789 in Georgetown, a restaurant that rivals the North Pole in terms of Christmas spirit. And if we missed any other DC restaurants with memorable holiday decorations, let us know in the comments. — Adele Chapin