Jackie Kennedy was the one who first started the idea of having a theme to the Christmas decorating every year.
In 1961, Jackie Kennedy had the Christmas tree decorated in a theme from the ballet, The Nutcracker. The tree was adorned with small toys, candy canes, gingerbread cookies and small packages.
When President Johnson was in office the theme for that year was An American Past. The tree was full of nuts, popcorn, fruit, roses made from wood and gingerbread cookies.
In 1969 Mrs. Nixon had the White House tree decorated in beautiful velvet and satin balls that represented the 50 States. They were all made by disabled workers in FL. Each ornament was embossed with the flower from each State.
By 1974, President Ford was in the White House and it was decided that homemade items emphasising Thrifting and Recycling would be the theme of their decorating. The tree had patchwork and handmade ornaments. There were blue moire swags lined with patchwork encircling the tree.
Jimmy Carter was in office on Christmas 1977. The first family decided to have their tree decorations made by disabled men and women from the National Association of Retarded Citizens. Placed upon the tree were ornaments made from nut pods, egg shells, foil and painted milkweed pods.
Skip ahead to 1986 and we find Mr. and Mrs Regan in the White House. Nancy Regan wanted to remember the children of America that year and so she decided on a theme of Mother Goose Christmas. The tree was packed with ornaments that looked like gingerbread cookies, Christmas card ornaments, State Balls and little white geese. At the base of the tree there were 15 soft sculptured scenes from Mother Goose rhymes.
In 1991 we found the first President Bush in office. Mrs Bush choose a tree decorated with needlepoint ornaments, red glass balls, needlepoint figures in shapes from Noah's Ark and at the bottom of the tree was a needlepoint village.
The Clinton's brought us a Winter Wonderland 1998. The tree was adorned with snowmen, knitted mittens and hats and tons of hand painted ornaments.
In 2001 the 2nd President Bush was in the White House and Laura Bush asked artists from the 50 States and District of Columbia to design miniature replicas of the historic houses from their regions.So here we are nearing Christmas 2008. President and Mrs. Bush are going to have their last Christmas in the White House and I, for one, will be waiting and watching to see what the theme of their Christmas tree will be.
So if you were in the White House, how would you decorate your tree?
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