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 first White House Christmas card, the first Christmas postage stamp, the first opera composed for television ("Amahl and the Night Visitors"), the first Christmas Day basketball game, and the first Elvis Presley Christmas album. The era saw the production and manufacture of toys that have become classics such as "Candy Land", Mr. Potato Head, and Barbie. During the post-War years, Americans could select their Christmas trees from a variety of offerings. Natural trees had become the preferred choice in America when Christmas tree farms began supplying them to large metropolitan areas in the 1920s. Artificial trees of bristles, aluminum trees,