As per tradition, US first lady Jill Biden presented the White House Christmas decorations on Monday. This year’s theme is “We the People,” from the preamble to the United States Constitution, and the decorations feature handwritten recipes, student self-portraits, framed pieces of the Constitution, and many reproductions of Commander and Willow, respectively the dog and cat of the presidential couple, in addition to the classic stockings hanging by the fireplace.
The White House was decorated with 77 Christmas trees, 25 garlands and over 83,000 lights by more than 150 volunteers. One has been added to the decorations menorah (the Jewish seven-branched candelabra) built using wood removed from the White House during the renovation during the presidency of Harry Truman, in the 1950s.
The corridor of the East Wing (the one that was so mocked in the times of Melania Trump, when some referred to it as a “forest of blood-red trees” or a set of horror films) is decorated to look like a forest of birch trees in winter.
(Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Since 1800, with President John Adams, Christmas has been celebrated in the White House; since then the decorations have been used increasingly to send a political message and tell something about the identity of the presidential family. The first to choose a specific theme was Jackie Kennedy in 1961, who was inspired by ballet The Nutcracker.
