Presidential Holiday Parties Throughout History

A Christmas Carnival

President and Mrs. Roosevelt enjoyed celebrating the season with large parties for the young ones. In 1903, they invited 500 children to come play games, dance, and listen to special music, eat a nice dinner, enjoy Santa-shaped ice cream and other dessert goodies. Roosevelt was a strict conservationist and did not approve of cutting trees just for Christmas. However, his son snuck a little one inside and hid it in a closet.

Because his father was so tough and strict, rebelling meant sneaking in a tree. Because why would you openly disobey someone who was shot during a speech and just continued speaking?

A Forest in the White House

There seems to be an unspoken tree war in the White House. For many years, the Eisenhower administration held the banner for having the most Christmas trees inside the house with a total of 26 trees. In 1997, however, the Clintons surpassed this number by having 36 trees fill the house for their holiday theme of “Santa’s Workshop.”

If the house was not that big then this war might be a problem. However, this war is just all fun and games until someone wants to surpass the 36 that the Clinton’s brought in. Imagine if all of them had presents under?