Hugh Hefner’s ex-wife Crystal shows off her LAVISH Playboy-themed Christmas decor – including many festive nods to her late husband – as she lifts the lid on what holidays were REALLY like inside infamous mansion

Hugh Hefner's ex-wife, Crystal Hefner, may have moved on from the years she spent in the Playboy mansion, but every Christmas she makes sure her home is filled with some very special nods to her time there .

Six years after her late husband passed away at the age of 91, Crystal, 37, continues to decorate her own home with ornaments and decorations that once hung in the infamous mansion.

From tree decorations to several very unique pieces, Crystal transforms her home into a very festive reminder of her wedding to the Playboy mogul.

'Hef gave me a life-size Santa Claus for one year. We had Santa Claus in the great room of the mansion. I told him I wanted this. It was purchased at a store in Brentwood. I told half of them that I wanted to get a life-sized Santa Claus. He said, 'of course.' Crystal told DailyMail.com as she opened the doors to her SoCal winter wonderland.

“Then there are these dancing girls. And I remember buying those, thinking Hef would like them. And of course he did. They were put on display in the mansion.”

Crystal revealed that when she married Hef in 2012, many of the decorations in the mansion were outdated – and she says she was proud to bring some Christmas cheer into the home.

“Hef loved all the fantasy and it helped fill the house with Christmas cheer. Everything was decorated and Candy Canes were lined up in the driveway outside the mansion as you arrived.

“I remember I had one of those giant inflatable Rudolph, and I put it in the front yard.

“I guess a moment before Christmas, even though it's so magical, for some reason that felt the most normal, the most normal. The decorations were a bit dated. I helped renew all that and Huff was very happy with it.”

“When I put up like Santa Claus and the other decorations, I think of the mansion, and when they were in the mansion. I do think about my friends, and it was fun taking pictures of everything.”

'My family came to visit the country house at Christmas, and I thought that was special.'

'When it comes to gifts, you have to be creative at Hef. One year I gave him a self-portrait made from recycled stuff.'

'I would get him super unique gifts, like a globe. But on the globe, like everywhere else in the world, there was a Playboy club. I pointed out Casablanca, his favorite movie, as shown on the menu.'

“I gave him a custom acrylic backgammon board and it had a real kiss from me printed on the board. I bought him a replica of the original Playboy building.”

Hef didn't get as creative when shopping for Crystal's gifts, as she opened Playboy-themed presents at the Playboy mansion every year.

'Actually. The first few years I was there he would, you know he would get me like Playboy stuff. He gave me a playmate's necklace, a bunny necklace, one of which had diamonds.”

'Yes, I think he gave me a golden rabbit's head with a ruby ​​on the eye. I kept some of these things, but some I honestly gave away to fans like some of them,” she said.

'After Hef's death it was difficult. And I started traveling about a month later. I guess, just to keep my mind busy and not really have to face anything.”

“After that I started to enjoy therapy and trying to understand everything,” she told DailyMail.com.

In a recent episode of her podcast Below the surface with Crystal Hefnershe revealed, “I feel like I was very restricted” during the ten years she lived in the Playboy mansion.

'My relationship and marriage to Hugh Hefner was very complicated. “It was one where no matter how I was treated, I always felt like I had to protect him, which is why I haven't shared my story until now,” she told DailyMail.com in July.

'I've had to do a lot of self-discovery since he passed away. I have had to discover who I am without it being dictated to me. Not only did I have to find my voice, but I also had to learn how to use that voice.

“My book is a testament to the power of time, processing everything I've been through and embracing my truth.”

Crystal started dating Hugh in January 2009, when she was 23 and he was 83. They were married for five years before he passed away in 2017 at the age of 91.

Crystal was by Hugh's side when he died on September 27, 2017 at the Playboy mansion in Holmby Hills, California.

At the time, she posted on Instagram: “I was with him at the end. We had already discussed what would happen. “You move on, but know that I love you very much,” he said, and we cried.”

After Hef's death, Crystal dated 34-year-old actor Ryan Malaty, whom she recently split from after two years.

She was recently pictured with Alex Kotzen, an aspiring tennis star studying at Columbia University.