The White House Christmas Tree

It's Christmas at the White House...

... and there's no better way to mark the beginning of the holiday season than the lighting of the White House Christmas Tree. Not to be confused with the National Christmas Tree, which the President lights on the White House ellipse every year, the White House Christmas Tree is the First Family's official tree. It's typically positioned in the Blue Room, a public space for all White House visitors to see.

The first indoor tree was used in 1889 by Benjamin Harrison and his family. Ever since that tree it has been the tradition that the First Lady decorated the official tree. Over the next several decades there were periods that there was not an official tree. Starting in 1929 the official tree became an unbroken tradition that continues up to today.

In 1961 First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy began the tradition of the official tree being decorated using a different theme every year.

 It's never decorated with religious ornaments, instead it's often adorned with a variety of secular ornaments, like bird figurines, historic homes, musical instruments, Victorian dolls, even Wilbur the Pig. Last year, for example, First Lady Laura Bush's "A Red, White and Blue Christmas," tree was hung with over 350 ornaments hand-decorated by artists from around the country. The White House announced, "Each ornament was specially designed to characterize the unique, patriotic spirit of the artist's state, district or territory."




The first themed tree in 1961 was dedicated to the Nutcracker Ballet. This included ornamental tree toys. These were reused in 1962 on Mrs.Kennedy's children's themed tree. In addition to these reused ornaments, she also used straw ornaments that had been made by seniors and disabled people from around the country. Disabled people's skills for making ornaments have been used over the years to make ornaments for other First Ladies.


The 1989 theme chosen by First Lady Barbara Bush was family literacy. The theme incorporated ornaments that represented characters from books. These ornaments were made by White House staff. The White House staff that were talented in handicraft also helped to make the ornaments for her 1990 Nutcracker theme, harking back to the theme that Jacqueline Kennedy used in 1961. The theme was again done by Hillary Clinton in 1996.



The 2000 tree theme was called Holiday Reflections and featured a combination of ornaments from the years that Hillary Clinton was the First Lady. The themes represented included her Nutcracker version, Santa's Workshop with glass ornaments, A Winter Wonderland with fabric ornaments from the 50 states, Holiday Treasures at the White House with toy ornaments, Angels, and The Twelve Days of Christmas.



 First Lady Laura Bush decorated her first White House tree in the theme of Home for the Holidays. The theme included replicas of historic homes from all 50 states and Washington, D.C. The 2003 theme was A Season of Stories, which was similar to the 1989 theme, with its storybook characters decor. The most recent theme is the 2007 Holiday in the National Park theme, which features ornaments from National Parks around the country.

First Lady Michelle Obama unveiled the 2009 White House Christmas Tree last week. The theme this year is "Reflect, Rejoice and Renew," and the tree  features over 800 ornaments re-decorated by 60 American communities, celebrating local monuments and institutions. There are ornaments featuring the Statue of Liberty and Mount Rushmore as well as some lesser known national landmarks.

This year's beautiful tree...

 

And a few more from our recent past...

We finished our outdoor decorating Saturday and, with the exception of a tweak here and there, have finished up inside as well. The gifts have all been purchased and I am starting my cards tomorrow. The season seems to be in full swing! I helped set up our church's annual craft fair/cookie walk on Friday and attended on Saturday. I am blessed to be a small part of such a loving and generous group of people. It was a delight to work with them.

This week we have numerous holiday activities to enjoy! Tuesday evening is the women's group's Christmas get together at church & Wednesday we wrap gifts for the children of a local church that works directly with needy families. That is always fun.  The children join in to help wrap gifts that are provided for them to give their parents. Their faces just glow!

Friday evening we are attending Broadway Holiday downtown at The Victoria Theater. It will be an evening of the greatest Broadway music and seasonal songs presented by several talented Broadway performers. I am quite excited about that!

Saturday we are going on a holiday house tour in one of the older sections of Dayton. I hope to get lots of pictures to share with you!

Saturday night we are going to Bill's office's annual get together.

And so the Christmas season rush begins...it is a busy time but isn't it sweet?

AND...we had snow this morning!

I have a few seasonal photos to share but that will wait until tomorrow...

I hope you are all well and enjoying all the magic that December brings!

Love and Hugs,

Susie Q