White House Christmas tree Henry Hoover began the tradition of presidential wives decorating the White House tree with the first "official" White House Christmas tree in 1929. In 1961 First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy began the tradition of selecting a theme for the White House Christmas tree by decorating with a Nutcracker motif. As stated, there were years where no indoor White House Christmas tree was installed at all. It is verifiable that there was no Christmas tree in the White House in 1902, 1904, 1907, and 1922. The lack of a tree in 1902 was due to the fact that President Theodore Roosevelt had
Christmas in the post-war United States well as contemporary cultural images such as elves sporting Beatle haircuts and psychedelic Christmas trees in Warholesque colors. "Happy Christmas" replaced "Merry Christmas" here and there after clergymen decided the traditional greeting was associated with inebriation. In 1961, 50 billion Christmas cards were mailed by Americans, and, in 1962, America's first Christmas postage stamp was issued—causing a mild firestorm by those who felt the stamp violated separation of church and state. Mamie Eisenhower's Million-Dollar Fudge Recipe was a favorite holiday treat of the Eisenhower White House years. and first appeared in "Who Says We Can't Cook?", a spiral-bound collection of