Presidential Holiday Parties Throughout History

Jackie’s Contribution

Thanks to First Lady Jackie Kennedy, the women of the White House are gifted with the honor of choosing a theme for the seasons’ festivities. Her choice for the tradition’s first year was “The Nutcracker Suite” and decorated the Blue Room Christmas tree with nutcrackers, toys, ballerinas, and other related ornaments.

This tradition piggybacks off of past first lady, Hue Hoover starting the custom of putting the tree in the Blue Room. It slowly became a tradition as the years went by so Jackie just made it official. Wait until you see what a tradition caused in the next slide!

Holiday Farewell

It was the annual National Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony and also the last one for President Obama. You know the 44th president had to go out with a bang. The man was singing on stage (what is new) he invited all of his popular celebrity friends and many of them performed as well.

The highlight was when Chance the Rapper, the winner of the Best New Artist Grammy, performed his soulful song “Sunday Candy” and Obama’s daughter lip sang the whole song. Even Michelle Obama got in on the dancing while sitting in her seat. It was surely a great way to have your last annual event.