‘Peace & Light’: Bidens send a message with final holiday display

After an election year filled with rancor and ultimately, voters’ rejection of the Biden administration, the White House is calling for a “Season of Peace & Light” with this year’s holiday theme.

“At the holidays, Americans come together every year in fellowship and faith, reminding us that we are stronger as a community than we are apart,” President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden wrote at the end of the holiday guidebook. “The strength of our country, and the soul of our Nation, come from you. May the promise of this ‘Season of Peace and Light’ guide your path forward.”

This year’s decorations, unveiled earlier this month in a media preview, largely stick with the tried-and-true, both in terms of aesthetics and messaging. The East Colonnade, the long hallway that welcomes visitors and sets the tone, is an homage to classic Noel baubles. It features arches of garland wrapped with sleigh bells and red ribbons holding brass-colored bells suspended from the ceiling, culminating in a present-filled red sleigh drawn by a stuffed horse.

White paper doves in the Red Room convey messages of peace. For the trees in the State Dining Room, families of those serving on U.S. Navy vessels provided colorful garland, and students from across the country created charming self-portraits that serve as ornaments. The China Room is an ode to baking bread, with a bountiful presentation of artisanal loaves — even the wreaths in this room are made of braided bread. The Library has a delightful assortment of vintage ceramic trees. And the Diplomatic Reception Room — which the public can now enter — features trees and a mantle place themed with holiday fruits — oranges especially — and flowers.

White House staffers expect about 100,000 visitors this season, including the guests at about two dozen scheduled holiday parties. The entire operation comes with the kind of festive pomp and circumstance that would be appropriate at the North Pole itself, or at least an FAO Schwarz in its prime. That begins with the “President’s Own” Marine Corps Band playing holiday tunes as visitors step through the East Wing doors festooned with golden wreaths. Guests are never far from the sound of live music — whether old standards or newer classics, such as “Last Christmas” from Wham! — reverberating off the historic walls. Fireplaces in each room emitted warmth and the sounds of popping wood during the preview, which was followed by an event for National Guard families, where Jill Biden gave remarks.

For the Biden family’s last Christmas in the People’s House, the emphasis is on tranquility. But that doesn’t mean a Beige Christmas: Indeed, the decorations include a healthy heaping of color and, yes, a lot of candy.

Among the most vivid offerings is the annual White House Christmas tree, which has been turned into an old-school carousel, with carnival music playing in the Blue Room to match. The 18½-foot Fraser fir from Newland, North Carolina, has a large red-and-white striped base that covers the bottom of the tree entirely. Red ribbons strung from the top to the bottom resemble a circus big-top tent. Huge stuffed animals that move up and down circle the tree like real merry-go-round figurines. The effect is playful, though the tree itself takes a back seat in a discordant note. A Season of Peace and Light? Nothing feels particularly peaceful in this room, though there’s a bevy of lights.

The East Room, the largest in the house and the scene of bill signings, receptions and other key events, is more in tune with the broader theme. A sparkling canopy on the ceiling and windows resembles a particularly photogenic snowfall, and white and silver ornaments adorn the trees.

And the ever-popular Gingerbread White House, in the State Dining Room, also has a refined look this year — all white with deep green trees and white lights, and a scene of moving ice skaters on the South Lawn. The effort required 35 sheets of cookie dough, 65 pounds of pastillage, 45 pounds of chocolate, 50 pounds of royal icing, 40 pounds of poured sugar and 10 pounds of gum paste.

Lest one think this year’s theme is a pointed response to, well, anything that occurred in the past year, brainstorming for holidays at the White House begins in January, basically as soon as the previous year’s decor comes down. Planning starts in earnest after the annual Easter Egg Roll, and the execution phase kicks off in the fall, with the final push after the tree arrives. (This year’s tree arrival ceremony happened on Nov. 25.) The final 72 hours before the reveal is filled with the last-minute glue-gunning, manic ribbon-creating and holiday hustle familiar to many people scrambling to get their own decorations just right.

“We’ve been working, putting stuff together and doing, I mean, everything you could possibly think of,” says Darrion Cockrell, who was named Missouri’s Teacher of the Year in 2021. “There’s so many little things that you don’t think about, all the details, that I’m just so grateful to be a part of.”

Cockrell is one of more than 300 volunteers from across the United States who spent a week bringing the White House decorations to life. For this year’s project, they were armed with 9,810 feet of ribbon, more than 28,125 ornaments, more than 2,200 doves and more than 165,075 holiday lights for the garlands, wreaths, displays and 83 Christmas trees. (These numbers are largely in step with last year, though there are 15 fewer trees.)

This year’s friendly feeling is in keeping with past Biden White House displays, all of which have been an elevated version of what many do in their own homes, rather than a more haute presentation. Last year, the White House aimed to capture the exhilaration of the holidays from a child’s perspective, including an East Colonnade with candy cane columns and holiday treats hanging from the ceiling. In 2022, the theme “We The People” was full of homespun touches designed to make the decor at the People’s House feel approachable, including a display of the first lady’s oft-used recipe cards. The Biden family’s first Christmas in the White House in 2021, which was scaled back because of the pandemic, had a “Gifts From the Heart” theme, with rooms designed to honor members of the military, front-line workers and first responders.

While the future of White House holiday decorations was not a salient question for voters in the 2024 election (nor should it be), either outcome would have promised a dramatic shake-up in this arena. Former and now incoming first lady Melania Trump made waves with her hallway of 40 crimson topiary trees in 2018, still among the most-discussed of any White House decoration. And a win by Vice President Kamala Harris would have meant the first-ever first gentleman and the first Jewish first spouse steering the merry ship.