White House Christmas tree have had the first indoor Christmas tree at the White House during the 1850s, variously reported as 1853 or 1856. Others claim the first tree was during President Benjamin Harrison's administration (either in 1888, 1889, or 1891). First Lady Caroline Harrison helped decorate the tree, which was installed in the second floor oval parlor today's Yellow Oval Room. There is an 1880 reference to President John Tyler in the 1840s, hosting a children's party at which there was a Christmas tree with gifts. Following the Harrison administration indoor trees were not always used at the White House. First Lady Lou
1856 United States elections Congressional delegations to the 35th Congress. In the Presidential election, Democratic former Secretary of State James Buchanan defeated Republican General John Fremont and the American Party candidate, former President Millard Fillmore. Buchanan swept the South and split the North with Fremont, while Fillmore won Maryland. Buchanan had defeated incumbent President Franklin Pierce (the first elected president to lose his party's presidential nomination) and Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois on the 17th ballot at the 1856 Democratic National Convention. Fremont defeated Supreme Court Justice John McLean at the 1856 Republican National Convention to take the Republican nomination. Fillmore's third party