WASHINGTON — It’s the final holiday stretch for President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, who has decked out the White House with some whimsical decorations to evoke the “peace and light” of the season.
The festive display includes a towering Christmas tree surrounded by a carousel, brass-colored bells and sleigh bells lining a hallway and a ceiling design that mimics snowfall.
The White House held a media preview for journalists on Monday before the first lady formally unveils the decorations later in the day. The theme is “A Season of Peace and Light.”
“As we celebrate our final holiday season here in the White House, we are guided by the values we hold sacred: faith, family, service to our country, kindness towards our neighbors, and the power of community and connection,” the Bidens wrote in a commemorative holiday guidebook that will be given to all visitors. The White House expects about 100,000 people to visit this month.
More than 300 volunteers spent past week decorating the White House’s public spaces and its 83 Christmas trees with nearly 10,000 feet (3,048 meters) of ribbon, more than 28,000 ornaments, over 2,200 paper doves and some 165,000 lights used on wreaths, garlands and other displays.
The official White House tree, a towering Fraser fir from North Carolina that was anchored to the ceiling of the Blue Room after a chandelier was removed, sits at the center of a colorful amusement park-style carousel with reindeer, swans and other animals bobbing up and down on poles. The tree is decorated with twinkling multicolored lights and three-dimensional holiday sweets like peppermints and ribbon candies. It also sports the names of every U.S. state, territory and the District of Columbia.
Guests will enter the White House beneath a rotating starlight and quickly come upon the Gold Star tree, honoring the families of fallen service members. The tree is made of six gold-toned stars, one for each of the six branches of the military, stacked one on top of the other.
The bells lining the East Colonnade hallway are meant to symbolize the sounds of the holidays. The ceiling and windows upstairs in the East Room are covered with reflective decorations designed to create the feeling of snow falling. Silhouettes of people holding hands decorate the bases of two large Christmas trees that flank the center door of the room.
Light shines through colored glass ornaments and prisms in the Green Room while paper doves in the Red Room carry messages of peace. Doves are also suspended overhead along the Cross Hall, which runs between the East Room and the State Dining Room.
In the State Dining Room, a starburst made out of sugar shines above the massive gingerbread White House, which includes snowcovered South Grounds dotted with dozens of twinkling mini Christmas trees and a scene of people ice skating in a rink on the South Lawn.
The sugary confection — which is for display purposes only and never eaten — was built using 25 sheets of gingerbread dough, 10 sheets of sugar cookie dough, 65 pounds of pastillage, a sugar paste, 45 pounds of chocolate, 50 pounds of royal icing, and 10 pounds of gum paste.
As part of Joining Forces, Jill Biden’s White House initiative to support military families, the first lady invited National Guard families to be the first members of the public to experience the holiday decor. The Bidens’ late son, Beau, served in the Delaware Army National Guard. He died of brain cancer in 2015.
Biden is set to leave office on Jan. 20.
