The Story Behind Jill Biden’s First White House Christmas Decorations: 10,000 Ornaments, 300 Candles, and More

PreservationThe Story Behind Jill Biden’s First White House Christmas Decorations: 10,000 Ornaments, 300 Candles, and MoreFirst Lady Dr. Jill Biden chose to focus on a celebration of frontline workers and other “Gifts from the Heart”

By Tim Nelson

November 30, 2021

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A look inside the White House. Photo: Getty Images

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Dr. Jill Biden has unveiled her inaugural White House holiday decorations, in a continuation of a long-held executive branch tradition. Overall, the decor choices read as traditional, with the occasional special flourish and White House first thrown in. Taken collectively, the decorations are an homage to frontline workers who have made sacrifices throughout the COVID-19 pandemic—the realities of which will keep the White House from offering public holiday tours. (“Gifts from the Heart” is this year’s official theme.) According to its own statistics, the White House utilized 41 trees, 10,000 ornaments, 300 candles, and 6,000 feet of ribbon to evoke feelings of unity and healing.

Within various rooms of the White House, those “gifts” manifest in unique and novel ways. Of specific note is the Vermeil Room’s celebration of “the gift of the visual arts.” There, paint cans dripping with primary-colored brushes, pencils, and flowers replace more expected wreaths. Elsewhere, Pantone color chips were used in lieu of ornaments. 

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Other elements of the seasonal makeover showcase more personal Biden family touches. The China Room’s table is set “Nana style” as a homage to the President’s past family dinners. In the more sparsely decorated Green Room, which is meant to symbolize “the gift of nature,” purple orchids, one of the president’s favorite plants, break up the typical red and green palette a bit further. In the State Dining Room, six stockings for the Biden grandchildren are hung by the chimney with care.

The State Dining Room is also where one can find this year’s 350-pound gingerbread house, or, more accurately, gingerbread community. Alongside the traditional White House replica fashioned by executive pastry chef Susan Morrison, the display includes a school, police station, firehouse, post office, grocery store, and warehouse as a celebration of the frontline workers who kept America running in the face of 2021’s immense challenges. In order to meet the First Lady’s goal of incorporating a totally new element, the gingerbread White House features an illuminated wreath atop its edible North Portico. A delicious twist, one could say.