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• Position: What's News? Holiday Gifts Galore - High end Christmas decorations - Brief Article

Last Christmas, we grudgingly gave up our kitschy decorating style in order to--putting it bluntly--"class up the joint." This holiday season--thanks to our 2002 encounter with Nambe, Orrefors, and Kosta Boda--our lowbrow ways of the past are no more than a distant memory.

We once again happily began our ornament search with Nambe, Santa Fe, N.M., the designer and manufacturer of tabletop and gift accessories by young, cutting-edge American designers. The company's limited edition holiday ornaments, in silver-clad metal and full-lead crystal, must be seen to be believed. (Incidentally, Nambe designs can be found in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art--New York and San Francisco -- the Chicago Athenaeum, and the International Museum of Design, London.)

The 2003 collection, which builds on 2002's initial series of thematic designs, includes Aaron Johnson's Silent Night and the Laurie Brzezowksi trio of Star, Cross, and Duo. Each lists for $45. The Star and Cross include black satin cords for use as pendants when they're not...