Chapter 22
For eight years, my social secretary Carlos Elizondo and I had decorated the vice president’s residence for the holidays, so I had a sense of what the season meant in Washington.
However, the First Lady’s work as a hostess became all-consuming every December.
We hosted the Kennedy Center Honors, followed by the Congressional Holiday Ball with two thousand members of Congress and their families, and then the festivities really began—some twenty-five parties and receptions per season.
We greeted everyone from Girl Scouts to football players, tech CEOs to civil servants. I loved this time of year.
Fortunately, we had lots of help on the decorating front.
In November, about three hundred volunteers came from all over the country, at their own expense, to decorate the White House for the holiday season.
They worked for three or four days from seven in the morning till seven at night.
Friends and family members I know who’ve done this affectionately call it “adult camp.” They wore bedecked aprons and jingle bell necklaces and Santa hats, and they glue-gunned their hearts out while making friends for life.
The groups were chosen by application, and many of the same people returned again and again each year.
Without them, it would have been nearly impossible to prepare all the rooms in time for the usual crush of one hundred thousand visitors.
Someone was in charge of each of the dozen or so rooms and halls.
In the course of that week, I’d overhear things like: “Your snowball isn’t big enough. Do it again.”
Once my sisters Kim and Kelly heard about the decorating, they were all in!
The moment they’d finished their Thanksgiving dinners, they hopped in the car and drove to DC.
They didn’t tell anyone they were my sisters, but eventually some people found out because they knew the staff so well.
When the Christmas special was on television, we’d watch to see if we could catch a glimpse of Kim or Kelly on a ladder or wielding a mean glue gun.
Each year, we started planning for Christmas in early February; staff would buy the decorations in August. Then we’d reveal the decorations the Monday after Thanksgiving.
There was a press preview at 5:30 in the morning, with a military band playing holiday music throughout.
Every room—the library, the Red Room, the Blue Room, the China Room—needed to be decorated within the theme.
So that everyone who went on the Christmas tour would feel joy and inspiration, my staff and I spent months planning the experience.
As a rule, I wanted the holidays to bring people together, so my overarching theme was unity.
I made sure to make it feel as homey as possible, with handprint ornaments by military families and personal recipes from volunteers.
I also wanted to evoke all the senses. One year, we had a model train blowing a whistle on its track around the tree; another, we had artistic lighting that made it look as if a star over one of the entrances was rotating.
In 2021, I chose the theme “Gifts from the Heart,” which honored gifts like service and faith. The goal was to celebrate unity and healing in the wake of COVID. We encircled the Blue Room tree with messages of goodwill.
Because we couldn’t invite anyone in person to the White House that year, we worked with PBS to record In Performance at the White House: Spirit of the Season.
Our friend Jennifer Garner hosted the evening, which included Camila Cabello, Eric Church, the Jonas Brothers, Norah Jones, Pentatonix, and Billy Porter.
The Northwell Health Nurse Choir and Voices of Service made the show extra meaningful.
Andrea Bocelli, along with his son Matteo and young daughter, Virginia, sang “O Holy Night” and “Hallelujah.” Joe told him his favorite was Bocelli’s moving “Fall on Me.” I didn’t request it for the special because I thought Joe wouldn’t be able to get through it without becoming emotional.
So Bocelli sang it especially for Joe, a magical moment the two of them spent together, one singing and one listening in rapture, tears in his eyes.
In 2022, the White House holiday theme was “We the People.” I used mirror ornaments so viewers would see themselves looking back at the decorations.
The Blue Room tree featured state birds from all fifty states.
There was a gingerbread replica of Philadelphia’s Independence Hall.
The State Dining Room held self-portrait ornaments made by students of the Teachers of the Year.
We also unveiled the first official White House menorah, which was made by the resident carpentry shop, headed by Robbie Thompson.
Yet what everyone seemed to love best were the simple cotton balls hanging from the ceiling in the East Colonnade to represent snow.
For Christmas 2023, my favorite year, we went with the theme “Magic, Wonder, and Joy.” To create wonder, we made it look like a tree was coming out of the East Wing.
We invited the National Confectioners Association to sponsor displays for the decor.
They outdid themselves! They created huge gingerbread men, candy canes, gumdrops, and ice cream cones hanging from the ceiling.
Santa’s sleigh flew through the foyer. What a joy to see the children’s reactions as they walked through those rooms!
Even though we were in the White House, I tried to maintain as many of our Delaware holiday traditions as I could.
“Santa” always added snow to the boughs of our Christmas tree when he delivered gifts.
A mixture of Ivory Snow and water does the trick.
Blair Downing, the White House chief usher, asked that Santa take extra care with the snow given that a Rothko was hanging nearby.
On Christmas mornings, I cooked the grandchildren their favorite holiday breakfast, bacon-and-egg sandwiches.
One year we installed an ice rink on the South Lawn.
The last time there had been ice skating there was in 1980, when the Carters put one up and invited Peggy Fleming to perform.
The night we unveiled the rink, we were honored by performances by Olympic gold medalist Brian Boitano and even Snoopy on Ice.
I do know how to skate. I skated on frozen canals in New Hope, Pennsylvania, with my family; attended Ice Capades with my grandmother (the pennant graced my wall for years of my childhood); and took ice skating as one of my electives as a University of Delaware undergrad.
At the White House skating rink opening, I was gifted a beautiful pair of custom pink skates by Dan Riegelman of Riedell Skates.
Still, I did not have enough faith in my ability to guarantee that I would not take a spill and get a concussion.
That would not have been festive, especially in front of Snoopy.
I wore boots out onto the ice, and I held Brian Boitano’s hand.
“Children have something to teach us, if we are wise enough to listen,” I told the crowd. “How to remain present, even as a busy world beckons us. How to open ourselves up to love and wonder, and to marvel at every moment, no matter how ordinary.”