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 at the White House families. The music was conducted by Tony Mottola, who often worked with Ives, and arranged by Mottola and Dick Lieb. The historical introductions to the songs were written by Barbara Holdridge. Ives is both the narrator of the introductions and the performer of the songs. Christmas at the White House Christmas at the White House: Burl Ives Sings the Favorite Carols and Hymns of America's Presidents is a 1972 album by Burl Ives. It purports to be a collection of twelve presidents' favorite Christmas songs. It has not yet been released on CD. Some of the selections were apparently based