What it will take to transform the White House for the holidays
The 300 volunteers were divided into eight teams, each named after a different Santa’s reindeer.
On the day after Thanksgiving, while the Bidens were still in Nantucket, the teams headed to the White House and worked through the weekend decorating the halls with hand-strung gumdrops, forming chicken wire into branch-covered arches and using crystals to install studded nutcrackers. on mantelpieces and hang a set of papier-mâché reindeer floating above the Cross Hall and Grand Foyer.
The transformation — praised by Jill Biden, the first lady, as a result of “hard work and meticulous attention to detail” by the droves of volunteers — resulted in a holiday-themed White House full of historic touches.
Regardless of the administration, turning the White House complex into a wonderland is a feat that relies on donated materials and the time of volunteers. Even the Oval Office is decorated.
Here are a few numbers behind this year’s display.
200: Era of ”It Was the Night Before Christmas”
When planning began this spring, Dr. Biden told her team that she wanted visitors to experience the setting through the eyes of a child.
“Children are not bound by time and naturally know beauty,” she said this week as she unveiled the decorations. “It is this childlike wonder and awe that inspired this year’s holiday theme: the ‘Magic, Wonder and Joy’ of the season.”
The decor includes a large train circling the official White House Christmas tree, an 18-foot-tall Fraser fir in the Blue Room, and numerous papier-mâché ballerinas. On the main floor are early editions of “A Visit From St. Nicholas,” the poem also known as “Twas the Night Before Christmas,” on loan from the Library of Congress. Another exhibition features more recent books, one printed in Spanish, with the same theme.
The poem also serves as inspiration for the 300-pound gingerbread White House and Santa’s sleigh scene. (Special scaffolding has been built to hang the sled so that the building is not drilled.) In the Red Room upstairs, family portraits drawn by children from military families hang from trees strung with popcorn streamers of yarn.
2: Number of first-lady siblings in the volunteer corps
Dr.’s two younger sisters Biden, twins named Kim and Kelly were part of the decorating crew this year. Volunteers signed up starting in August and their duties included hanging 500 letters to Santa (and the Bidens) in the main floor hallway.
“Please bring me a dinosaur. I love you!” reads a letter addressed to Santa and Mrs. Claus.
After the Bidens leave to spend Christmas Day at Camp David — choosing to spend Christmas Day there instead of at the White House for the first time since President Biden took office — a smaller team of 75 volunteers will and White House staff spend about two days removing the decorations, according to the East Wing.
142,425: Number of holiday lights
This is a lot of wattage, but there are a lot of trees.
The first tree guests encounter is a large Fraser fir, dedicated to Gold Star families, whose family members died as a result of their active military service. There are 97 other trees in the complex, including two huge Advent calendar themed ones in the East Room.
Former first ladies are highlighted in the ground floor Vermeil Room, dedicated to gilded silver. A white-lit tree illuminates a portrait of Jacqueline Kennedy, and across the room an arch decorated with white lights and tiny ballerinas hangs beneath a portrait of Lady Bird Johnson.
A number of portraits of other first ladies, including that of Michelle Obama, are decorated with red-and-white amaryllis lilies. (Mrs. Obama’s exhibit is also decorated with candy jars.) A more somber setup is nearby in the ground-floor hallway, where a portrait of Rosalynn Carter, who died last month, is draped in black.
6: Number of pastry chefs needed to put together a White House gingerbread
According to the East Wing, it takes a team of chefs about three weeks to put the creation together. The 300-pounder requires 40 sheets of sugar cookie dough, 40 sheets of gingerbread dough, 90 pounds of pastillage (sugar paste), 30 pounds of chocolate and 50 pounds of royal icing. Elizabeth Alexander, the first lady’s communications director, did not immediately answer the question of whether anyone ever takes a bite from home.
1: Number of menorahs and ice rinks
The official White House menorah, that is one year old, sits in the Kruiszaal. It was created by White House carpenters using wood from a 1950 White House renovation.
There is also a 50 by 70 foot ice rink installed on the South Lawn. The White House says children from military members and from local schools will be invited to skate this year.
100,000: People expected to see the decorations in person this year
Public tours are arranged through the conference offices of each visitor’s home state or territory. The White House is also offering virtual tours.
Speaking of politics, the White House Christmas decorations are often dissected – and politicized – by observers, who look for subtext in every choice. (Remember the blood-red trees of Melania Trump, the former first lady?)
This year, while previewing the setting, Dr. Biden nodded to “troublesome times” outside the gates and said she hoped the transformation of the White House could break through the trouble, if only for a short time .
“It’s in these times when we’re looking for hope and healing, these points of light – all of them – you know, that we need each other the most,” she said.