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Welcome to a White House Christmas
Each year, first lady Michelle Obama chooses a theme for the home's holiday decor. This year's theme is "Gather Around," a celebration of coming together with loved ones during the holiday season. Each room in the White House will showcase this idea through handmade decorations and unique Christmas trees.
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East Visitors Entrance
Guests enter the White House through the East Visitors Entrance. This welcoming spot features two trees decked in gold pinecones flanking the entrance and fresh garland accented by burgundy ribbons.
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East Visitors Entrance
The first tree guests see is a full evergreen decorated with gold leaves, copper ornaments and glittering burgundy ribbon. Did You Know? The home features 24 Christmas trees this holiday season.
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East Visitors Entrance
The walkway leading to the entrance features lanterns, boughs of fresh greenery and hanging metallic ornaments just above the doorway.
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East Entrance Landing
The landing area features a Christmas tree dedicated to American military members and their families. The tree includes ornaments representing all five military branches. Guests are encouraged to write postcards thanking our service members serving abroad and drop them in the mailbox during their White House visit.
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East Colonnade
The windows of the East Colonnade feature evergreen and stained glass wreaths that lead to the East Garden Room.
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East Colonnade
At the end of the hallway, a handmade archway crafted from satin ribbon and chenille stems opens into the East Garden Room.
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East Garden Room
The East Garden Room, known as "Booksellers," showcases stacked books that creatively form a Christmas tree. Did You Know? More than 450 repurposed books were used throughout the home's holiday decor.
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East Garden Room
The room's largest book tree uses its pages to spell out the message "Share Your Story."
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East Garden Room
The east wall of the East Garden Room features ribbon topiaries of the first dogs, with a high-fiving Bo (left) and a playful Sunny (right) surrounded by miniature book trees. Did You Know? Approximately 1,000 yards of satin ribbon were used to make this year's first dog replicas.
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The Library
Accenting the White House's wall-to-wall book collection is a Christmas tree styled with gold pinecones and burlap ribbon decorated with poinsettia detail and a classic scroll design.
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The Library
A mix of gold, burgundy and red ornaments are used on the tree to coordinate with the room's traditional color palette.
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The Library
Wooden chalkboard boxes at the foot of the fireplace hold a variety of ornaments, greenery and glowing white lights.
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Vermeil Room
The Vermeil Room, a sophisticated space filled with gilded silver and first lady portraits, showcases two dazzling Christmas trees in front of each window.
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Vermeil Room
Each tree in the Vermeil Room is decorated with wreath ring ornaments wrapped in satin yarn and miniature door ornaments made by volunteers.
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China Room
The China Room didn't exist until 1917 when first lady Edith Wilson created the space to house and display the home's famous china collection. The eight-foot-tall Christmas tree is even decorated to match the room with crystal ornaments and red berry accents. The table in the center of the room features glass votives etched with this year's holiday theme, "Gather Around."
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China Room
The mantelpiece is decorated in greenery accented with red, gold and silver ornaments that match the tree.
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East Room
The East Room features four decked-out Christmas trees decorated with more than 120 unique, handmade ornaments created by volunteers. This particular room celebrates the act of sharing stories through art.
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East Room
Some of the handmade ornaments on the East Room tree include miniature cardboard houses, hand-crafted paper roses and glass bell jars filled with small decorative pieces.
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East Room
The East Room's mantelpiece is an eye-catching and elegant display with draping greenery, ornaments, hand-crafted roses and layers of textured ribbon.
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Green Room
Standing in the Blue Room doorway, guests can see the sparkling holiday decor in the Green Room and even the tree in the East Room.
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Green Room
Eight-foot-tall Christmas trees stand in front of each window in the Green Room. The trees are decorated with round disc ornaments accented with red poppies, orange and red felt flowers and faux sugared fruits. Around the room, guests will discover an abundance of lush holiday foliage.
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Green Room
Full, fresh greenery decorated with jewel-toned ornaments, plum ribbon and sugared fruits dress up the room's mantelpiece.
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Blue Room
The Blue Room is home to the largest tree in the home, the official White House Christmas tree. This year's tree is an 18.5-foot-tall Douglas fir from Lehighton, Pa. that takes a large crew of workers to deliver and unload it into the home.
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Blue Room
This year's official White House Christmas tree, like years past, features decorations honoring military families, including more than 2,000 personalized ornaments and handmade decorations.
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Blue Room
The official tree's handmade ornaments include photographs of deployment homecomings, children's holiday greeting cards, state silhouettes and 3-D gold and silver papier-mache stars and ribbons hand-embroidered by volunteers showcasing each state and territory.
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Red Room
It's no secret that the Red Room gets its name from the red fabrics covering the walls, furnishings and floors. Two eight-foot-tall Christmas trees and stained glass wreaths hanging in the window bays add festive flair to the bold space.
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Red Room
Burlap cones filled with fresh greens, clusters of red berry accents and gold ornaments decorate the Red Room Christmas trees.
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Red Room
Traditionally, the Red Room has been home to the White House cranberry tree. This year, however, a crimson and plum-hued flower and fruit vase containing an arrangement of scarlet and fuchsia flowers takes its place.
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State Dining Room
The State Dining Room features two 14-foot-tall Christmas trees on either side of the mantelpiece. Evergreen boughs decorated with ornaments and copper pinecones frame the famous 1869 Abraham Lincoln painting by George Peter Alexander Healy.
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State Dining Room
The State Dining Room is also home to the traditional White House gingerbread house replica. This year's creation weighs approximately 300 pounds and took members of the White House pastry team several weeks to construct. The home features a mini Bo (left) and Sunny (right) sitting on the front lawn, as well as a functioning replica of the North Lawn fountain.
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State Dining Room
The gingerbread house rests on a life-sized, custom-made hearth made from springerle cookies. These tasty treats tell stories through personalized images imprinted in the dough through hand-carved molds. Did You Know? More than 1,200 springerle cookies were used to create the gingerbread fireplace.
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Entrance Hall
The Grand Foyer and neighboring Cross Hall are decorated to celebrate both individual American families and our nation as a whole. Four matching Christmas trees are accented with handmade ornaments and oversized metallic pieces.
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Cross Hall
Flowing boughs of fresh greenery frame each archway in the Cross Hall and coordinate with the foyer's elegant tree decor.
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Grand Foyer
The Grand Foyer and Cross Hall Christmas trees feature hand-written notes by volunteers expressing their holiday wishes.
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Cross Hall
The presidential seal gets a festive, holiday touch with greenery, bundles of gold pinecone ornaments and sparkling twigs.
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Holiday Preview
During a first viewing of this year's holiday decorations, first lady Michelle Obama welcomes military families to the White House and asks every American to remember our service members during the holiday season.
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Holiday Preview
First lady Michelle Obama and children of military families gather to create this year's kid-friendly holiday crafts: dried fruit ornaments and paper poinsettia flowers (or "bo-quets").
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Holiday Preview
First dogs Bo (right) and Sunny (left) delight children with their appearance at the holiday preview.
