The halls of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue are bedecked for Christmas. The Biden White House features glittering trees, giant holiday sweets, multiple Santas, and ever so much gingerbread, twinkle lights, baubles, and bows. A WORLDteen reporter visited the nation’s capital last weekend and found “The People’s House” decorated for kids from one to 92.
This is President Joe Biden’s third Christmas in the White House. First Lady Jill Biden chose the theme of “Magic, Wonder, and Joy” this year. She hopes visitors “see this time of year through the wondrous, sparkling eyes of children,” she says. To that end, “each room is designed to capture this pure, unfiltered delight and imagination.”
Some 300 volunteer decorators and designers spent a week bringing her vision to life. They included 98 Christmas trees, nearly 34,000 ornaments, over 22,000 bells, and more than 350 candles in the décor. Almost 142,500 lights illumine trees, garlands, wreaths, and other displays. Nearly 15,000 feet of ribbon—enough to stretch from one end of a football field to the other more than 41 times!—adorn the whimsical setting.
The White House opened on December 5 for viewing by the public. It will remain open through December 23. Staff expect about 100,000 holiday visitors this year.
After lining up outside the White House grounds, our group receives warm greetings from black-garbed Secret Service members. They check tickets and run belongings through metal detectors. A large mechanical pencil is nearly seized because of its hazardous appearance. Eventually, officers give it back and warn with a smile, “Don’t write on anything.”
As we approach the East Wing, a photo op with gift packages and greenery slows the line. Each group pauses for a picture against the White House backdrop.
Inside the East Wing lobby—near the First Lady’s office—visitors glimpse the first of many decorated Christmas trees. It features gold stars to honor U.S. troops who have died or are missing in action. It’s a sober and appropriate reminder of the cost of freedom. It also reflects the true reality of the greatest price paid for the greatest freedom of all: Jesus who came as a baby did so to die, to purchase freedom from the bondage of sin for all who would believe in Him.
Along the East Colonnade, oversized candies, ice cream cones, and baked goods hang from the ceiling along with hundreds of twinkle lights. The enchanted walkway feels a bit like entering an amusement park ride—in the cheeriest of ways.
Throughout two public floors of the White House, the décor features several nods to the 200th anniversary of the publication of the poem A Visit from St. Nicholas. It is more commonly known as ’Twas the Night before Christmas.
As our group wends our way through the house, we see shimmering moons and stars, holiday storybooks, musical instruments, and multiple advent calendars. An 18 ½-foot North Carolina Fraser fir brushes the ceiling of the Blue Room. The massive tree bears the names of every state hanging from gift tags. A toy train chugs around its base.
The East Room, the mansion’s largest and most historically important room, houses an Italian crèche with over 40 figures. The Nativity has been part of every White House Christmas since 1967.
Decorators turned the China Room into a Tiffany’s teal-colored sweet shop stocked with more cakes, cookies, and candies in bright colors.
The State Dining Room’s traditional gingerbread White House includes a large sugar cookie replica of A Visit from St. Nicholas in book form. White House bakers used 80 sheets of sugar cookie dough, 90 pounds of cake decorating paste, 30 pounds of chocolate, and 50 pounds of royal icing for the cookie house display.
We exit amidst ballerinas spinning atop plum puddings, a forest of lighted trees, and snow-laden dollhouses alongside presidents’ portraits and costly antique furniture. Santa’s sleigh—complete with reindeer—swoops across above us. We leave through the grand foyer of the famous house under a familiar greeting: “Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.”
