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
White House Executive Chef was replaced by White House assistant chef Hans Raffert. Raffert, a German-born chef who trained throughout Europe, joined the Nixon White House kitchen staff in 1969, and was the first White House chef to create a gingerbread house as part of the Executive Residence Christmas decorations. Raffert was 60 when he became Executive Chef, and retired in October 1992 just before he turned 65. French-born and trained chef Pierre Chambrin succeeded Raffert as Executive Chef, but he was asked to resign in March 1994 after refusing to cook the low-fat American cuisine favored by President Bill and First Lady Hillary