Christmas for 200: How a South Pasadena Instagram star does it

By Lisa BooneStaff Writer

Dec. 18, 2019 10:50 AM PT

Leslie Saeta loves Christmas.

Standing in her South Pasadena kitchen in early December, you would think it is Christmas as Saeta, dusted in flour and flanked by wreaths, bakes dozens of frosted sugar cookies for her annual holiday party.

The first party took place 33 years ago: “We had 45 friends for the party,” Saeta recalls. “Now, we have more than 200.”

How does she do it?

We caught up with Saeta, a 60-year-old marketing executive turned Instagram star, in the beginning stages of her monthlong party prep, an annual adventure she chronicles on her popular blog and Instagram account, My 100 Year Old Home, to find out.

Leslie Saeta and her dog, Sport, inside her South Pasadena home.

She has taped a color-coded Excel spreadsheet to-do list to the kitchen cabinet. On it, she has detailed her pre-party plan: She and her friends will prepare 500 crab cakes with lemon dill sauce on the Thursday and Friday before the party (color coded orange). Fig jam and holiday decor will be finished one week prior (yellow); flowers are to be arranged on Friday (blue). Many of the recipes (categorized by assorted colors) will have to be increased by tenfold.

The home is an ideal setting for a holiday party. The kitchen walls are painted a pale green, and the white cupboards and Carrara marble countertops add to the older home’s modern farmhouse vibe — familiar to the 259K who follow her on Instagram. There are sparkling Christmas trees in the living room and dining room; 18 wreaths hang throughout the five-bedroom house. While holiday songs play on Pandora, fragrant evergreen swags, tied to the dining room chairs, scent the air.

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Every year, Leslie Saeta transforms her South Pasadena home into a Winter Wonderland — in October. (Mariah Tauger/Los Angeles Times)

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For her holiday cocktail party for 200, Saeta will make 17 appetizers, which will be laid out on her dining room table. (Mariah Tauger/Los Angeles Times)

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Saeta works on sugar cookies in her South Pasadena kitchen, three weeks before her annual party. (Mariah Tauger/Los Angeles Times)

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An array of festive cookie cutters includes a black one that’s a replica of Saeta’s 100-year-old home. (Mariah Tauger/Los Angeles Times)

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Saeta ices sugar cookies. (Mariah Tauger/Los Angeles Times)

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Saeta bakes desserts in advance of the holiday party and freezes them. (Mariah Tauger/Los Angeles Times)

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Frosted sugar cookies are a Saeta holiday tradition. (Mariah Tauger/Los Angeles Times)

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The blogger and DIY guru created the place mats, which include verses from holiday carols. (Mariah Tauger/Los Angeles Times)

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DIY tree decorations, made by Saeta, are detailed on her blog My 100 Year Old Home. (Mariah Tauger/Los Angeles Times)

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The color scheme, and the pillows, reflect the holiday. (Mariah Tauger/Los Angeles Times)

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Wreaths in Saeta’s craft room are among 18 that hang throughout the house. (Mariah Tauger/Los Angeles Times)

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The holiday is in the details for Saeta. (Mariah Tauger/Los Angeles Times)

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A vintage sign hangs in the family room. (Mariah Tauger/Los Angeles Times)

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The entryway of the South Pasadena home, which Saeta and her husband bought from his parents. (Mariah Tauger/Los Angeles Times)

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Leslie Saeta works in her kitchen, with Sport by her side. (Mariah Tauger/Los Angeles Times )

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Holiday decor gives the modern farmhouse-style kitchen a festive mood. (Mariah Tauger/Los Angeles Times)

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The entryway features greenery from the Original Los Angeles Flower Market. (Mariah Tauger/Los Angeles Times)

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Leslie Saeta and Sport. (Mariah Tauger/Los Angeles Times )

Saeta cooks everything for the stand-up cocktail party herself, including 17 hors d’oeuvres and desserts she bakes in advance and stores in two freezers. By 3 p.m. the day of the party, she says, she is done and “off the clock.” (She hires caterers to help her with serving and cleanup.)

“I really enjoy it,” Saeta says as she cuts snowflake-shaped cookies with a cookie cutter. “It’s so rewarding to cook for people. It’s our gift to our friends, our children and our community.”

After more than 30 years of entertaining, Saeta has learned that, with a little planning, it is possible to throw a party for a huge crowd without a lot of stress.

And that’s really the essence of her blog and Instagram account.

“I want to show people that they can throw a party and have fun and it doesn’t have to be perfect,” she says. “I don’t host house tours because this is where I live. It’s not a place to show. It’s a place to share.”

On the night before the party, Mary Liz Burns, who has attended the party since the beginning, helps Saeta get ready with a crew of friends whose kids all grew up together. “It’s a South Pasadena tradition,” she says. “Everyone knows about it. There’s always a line for the crab cakes. The key to their success is that they are bite-sized. You just pop them in your mouth.”

Burns is not surprised by her longtime friend’s success as an online influencer. “Leslie puts 250% into everything she does,” she says. “People might have hosted similar events in the past but stopped or quit. She has always understood the bigger picture of what the holidays mean to people.”

And then there’s The Dress: “Our husbands went to high school together,” Burns explains. “Our wedding pictures are almost identical. We got married at the same place. Our wedding dresses look so similar except she made hers.” Of course she did.

Thanks to the popularity of Joanna Gaines’ farmhouse-modern design (Google Trends listed farmhouse style as the No. 1 trending home style of 2019), My 100 Year Old Home has become a beacon for the fans and followers who are drawn to Saeta’s warmth and unpretentious style — she shops at Costco, Trader Joe’s and the wholesale Original Los Angeles Flower Market in downtown Los Angeles — and affordable DIY tips.

Of course, it helps that she and her husband, David, happen to live in a traditional 1913 South Pasadena home that exudes Norman Rockwell charm.

The residence, which has been decked out for the holidays since October, is a favorite with set decorators and location scouts who have filmed commercials, television shows and, most recently, the Ben Affleck film “The Way Back.”

“Last year, it took the film crew two and a half days to put away all of my Christmas stuff, dress the sets and then put all of my Christmas stuff back when they were done,” she says, laughing at the memory.

Leslie Saeta's dining room is ready for the holiday party.

David grew up in the house, and the couple purchased it from his parents in 1998. Since then, the pair, who have three grown sons, have remodeled the house three times. “They were always very generous about the changes,” Saeta says of her in-laws.

As a self-described “open book,” Saeta says she enjoys sharing her life at home, including DIY crafts and entertaining projects, the family’s irresistible 7-year-old Labrador, Sport, and the home’s Hollywood exploits.

Saeta works about 70 hours a week on her blog, Instagram and brand endorsements and tries to answer every direct message and comment that she receives.

Still, it doesn’t feel like work.

‘It’s the best job in the world,” she says. “I get paid to create things. I’ve done that all of my life.”