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 tree production in the United States first Christmas tree farm in the United States is believed to have begun in 1901 when 25,000 Norway Spruce trees were planted by W. V. McGalliard in Mercer County, near Trenton, New Jersey. The trees were sold seven years later for US$1.00 each. Despite the early pioneers of the industry, by the late 1940s 90 percent of all natural Christmas trees sold in the United States were still harvested from forests. The most popular species during that era, Balsam Fir, Douglas-fir, Black Spruce and White Spruce, were all readily available from forests. Following World War II more trees began to