White House Hanukkah Party the Frontier". For two centuries after the time of the story about George Washington and Hanukkah, Christmas was the only winter religious holiday officially recognized by the White House. In 1923, President Calvin Coolidge began lighting an official White House Christmas Tree, and also delivered the first formal presidential message for the holiday. In 1927, his proclamation included the statement that, "Christmas is not a time or a season, but a state of mind". Focusing on the holiday's message, he continued, would guarantee that "there will be born in us a Savior and over us will shine a star sending
White House Hanukkah Party its gleam of hope to the world". President Franklin D. Roosevelt continued the White House tradition of treating Christmas as if it were a holiday celebrated by all Americans, declaring that Christmas was a national holiday "because the teachings of Christ are fundamental to our lives". His successor, Harry S. Truman, did the same, using his Christmas message as an opportunity to ask Americans to "put our trust in the unerring Star which guided the Wise Men to the Manger of Bethlehem". However, although he may never have spoken about Hanukkah, Truman was historically linked to the holiday, at least