Immerse Yourself in the Seasonal Magic of 'White House Christmas' 2023

As HGTV hosts with well-known access to their own inner children, brothers Drew and Jonathan Scott (Property Brothers: Forever Home and Celebrity IOU) leapt at the chance to create and experience holiday magic at the White House. “The 2023 White House holiday theme is inspired by how children experience this festive season,” the President and First Lady wrote in a welcome letter opening the 2023 White House Holiday Guide. “It’s that whimsy and that fun from when we were children around the holidays,” Drew said upon arrival at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. “I can feel it already!”

First-timer White House Christmas host Drew was hyperconscious of the time crunch: “We only have 72 hours to transform the White House[?!]” “We have lots of help,” Jonathan — who pitched in on decorating last year — assured his brother. “We have 300 volunteers!” An estimated 50,000 visitors toured the White House’s decorations in 2022, and twice that number are expected this year. Accordingly, its building, crafting and all-around merrymaking population doubled this year as well. Sure enough, that dedicated crew (and the White House staff, along with the Scott brothers) outdid themselves once again.

A total of 72 classic wreaths adorn the White House’s north and south façades this year, and 142,425 holiday lights decorate its trees, garlands, wreaths and displays. “I can give one embarrassing detail,” Jonathan said. “I have 208,000 lights at my house.” “If you happen to notice any empty spots on your trees here, it’s probably because he took things home,” Drew warned White House Designer Emily Barton.

Holiday visitors enter the White House through the East Portico, where volunteers staged an ingenious, one-of-a-kind “Magic Under the Tree” illusion to introduce 2023’s theme of “Magic, Wonder, and Joy.” As the First Family put it, “In this season of reflection and goodwill, we hope you will embrace your inner child and delight in simply being present with those you love.” That evocation of childhood is literal here, where the portico’s interior roof is decorated to create the impression of walking beneath larger-than-life boughs. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like this — you have a tree growing through the roof of the White House!” Jonathan exclaimed. “Tell me you didn’t cut a hole in the roof of the East Portico.”

“I did not,” White House volunteer Marielle Shortell assured him. “There’s actually a tree on top and then this is a setup below!”

“The scale is perfect — it actually creates a forced perspective, so [with] the illusion in the size you chose of the tree up top, it’s perfect with the overhang below,” Jonathan marveled. “This totally plays into transporting you back to your childhood, because with the large-scale presents and everything, it makes you feel like you’re a lot smaller. And I’m not used to feeling smaller!”

Jonathan was eager to join volunteers on the East Portico’s roof, where he learned the giant treetop illusion consisted of one 16-foot tree combined with six additional 7-foot trees. “You guys have created a stunning illusion here,” he said from atop a ladder at the massive structure’s crown.

The East Portico’s interior woodwork is festooned with larger-than-life ornaments, candies and Christmas crackers — novelties that date back to Victorian England. The sound of a crackling fireplace inspired London confectioner Tom Smith to create log-shaped packages that opened with a ‘crack’ to reveal a treat.

White House visitors moving through the East Portico first encounter the Gold Star tree, which features wooden ornaments engraved with the names of fallen service members. As the White House explains, “the Gold Star tree honors the heroic men and women of our Nation’s military who have laid down their lives for our country, those who are Missing in Action, and the families who carry on their legacies.” Many Gold Star family members come to Washington, DC, to assist in the decoration of this tree.

“You can see the amount of love that was put into making sure every piece, every star was placed perfectly,” Drew noted. “I think [the Gold Star tree] really showcases the importance of taking a moment to remember, because it’s really the first thing you see when you walk through the East Portico here and you see such a beautiful gesture,” Jonathan added.

Holiday candy and sweet seasonal treats carry from the East Wing’s lobby through to the East Colonnade — that is, the hallway that connects the East Wing to the White House — to remind children and families of the delicious flavors of the holidays. “I just love this,” Drew said. “Oversized swirl cones, gumdrops, peppermint swirls — everywhere you look there’s something delicious. I mean, who doesn’t love a giant gumdrop?” He appreciated the space’s design as well: “I just love these pops of color, [and] you can see the hand-painted detail as well for all these pieces here.”

Both Drew and Jonathan marveled at how quickly the East Colonnade’s decor came together: “It’s almost magical that there was nothing in here yesterday, and then all of a sudden our elves, aka volunteers, are here making this magic,” Drew said. Those "elves" installed 35,000 lights in the East Colonnade alone.

The White House East Garden Room — better known by its nickname, Booksellers Hall — features a larger-than-life topiary decorated with real gumdrops (Drew: “I did eat one! They are edible!”); a sugar cookie painstakingly hand-decorated with blue and white icing to resemble the White House’s North Portico; and a first appearance of the First Family’s four-legged members, Commander, the German shepherd, and Willow, the tabby. Each of the eight topiaries features 2,000 gumdrops and took two volunteers a full day to decorate.

Expanding on the White House’s sweet theme, volunteers created Commander’s distinctive "fur" with white sour belts, short pieces of black licorice and sheets of golden caramel. “This is taking that edible decoration to a whole other level,” Drew said. “You’re looking good, Commander! Willow, great job.”

The First Lady envisioned the East Colonnade as a sweet welcome, and a space filled with warm, golden light. “That checks off the ‘magic’ part of ‘magic, wonder and joy,’ Jonathan observed. “And then of course there’s a candy shop!”

This year, the dramatic 19th-century vaulting in this historic corridor features evergreen garlands interwoven with both children’s letters to the North Pole and Americans' holiday messages to the First Family. Brilliant red topiaries encrusted with glass baubles match the life-size mailboxes.

These vintage mailboxes’ contents, “ready to be sent to the North Pole with a stamp and a wish,” aren’t the only kids’ handicrafts to make appearances in the White House holiday decorations this year. In fact, young artists from around the world contributed to the magical atmosphere of the Red Room upstairs.

Home to historic portraits of First Ladies (such as Mamie Eisenhower, Claudia “Lady Bird” Johnson and Jacqueline Kennedy) and the world’s largest collection of gold-plated silver, the Vermeil Room now plays host to decor that celebrates the joy of music and performance. Jonathan, a self-identified “child of musical theater,” proclaimed it his favorite space: “This is incredible.”

The life-size stage features a trio of figures inspired by the United States Marine Band; founded in Philadelphia by an Act of Congress on July 11, 1798, it’s the oldest of the United States’ military bands. These trumpet players are programmed to twirl in synchronized patterns and delight young visitors; “[they’re] absolutely going to love this,” Drew noted.

The trees, in turn, feature rosettes made with sheet music, hand-cut ornaments and ballerinas with hand-cut fabric skirts. “You guys are all about the details,” Jonathan said.

First introduced as a display room by First Lady Edith Wilson in 1917, the China Room features either personal or State services of porcelain, glass or silver for most Presidents and their First Families. The baking implements here represent both beloved family recipes and the China Room’s first seasonal role: Before volunteers adorn it with decor for the year’s holiday theme, it serves as the assembly area for Executive Pastry Chef Susie Morrison and the team behind the annual, much-loved Gingerbread White House.

Backgrounds receive just as much decorative attention as foregrounds do in the White House’s holiday displays: look closely through the sweet-shop windows in the China Room and you’ll catch a glimpse of both the Washington Monument and the Jefferson Memorial.

Located in the center of the White House’s ground floor, the oval-shaped Diplomatic Reception room is both an entry to the building from the South Lawn and a place for ambassadors to present their credentials. Though it’s now decorated with Federal-era antiques, its formal functions are relatively new: For a century, it was used as a work space for domestic tasks like mending and silver-polishing. For 2023, its pair of Christmas trees features colored baubles, striped glass candies and velvet ribbons.

In 1935, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt dedicated this room to serve as the White House Library; in 2023, the First Family devoted it to the tradition and magic of bedtime stories during the holiday season. The theme of reading to children as a valuable part of their education “has woven its way all throughout” this year’s decorations, as White House Designer Emily Barton explains. “[We’re] setting the stage for bedtime stories [on] Christmas Eve before you get tucked in and Santa’s on his way.” (His sleigh and reindeer are silhouetted against the moon in the window on the left.)

The table at the center of the library features hand-cut storybook trees and a handmade papier-mache moon and stars. “I love the gold, I love the stars and the moon — this is so magical,” Drew said. “It feels like we’re in a fairy tale — it almost feels like a dream.” Fittingly, he added another star to crown the room’s Christmas tree.

What bedtime tableau would be complete without a cameo from the First Feline? (She appears in the room twice, in fact; she’s curled up on the bed, too.) “Willow’s got to be the most active cat I’ve ever seen!” Jonathan said. “I love the way the lights flicker; it makes it look like there’s dimension [to the scene],” he added.

It’s no accident that this space appears to be composed of garden trellises; the Palm Room is the breezeway between the Rose Garden and where members of the White House press corps work, and it functions as a visitor’s foyer in the West Wing. This year, volunteers embellished its lattices with wide ribbons and replaced its traditional green topiary with brilliant glass spheres to celebrate the season; amaryllis greens and festive red and white poinsettias complete the scene.

2023 marks the 200th anniversary of Clement Clarke Moore’s “A Visit From St. Nicholas” — better known by its iconic opening words, “’Twas the Night Before Christmas” — and installations throughout the White House celebrate the poem’s classic holiday imagery. The most spectacular installation of all is St. Nick himself, flying through the air (and the Grand Foyer) in a sleigh pulled by his eight tiny reindeer. (Rudolph wasn’t introduced to the lineup until 1939, you see.)

As White House Designer Stephen Brown explained to Jonathan and Drew, flying reindeer were a top priority for the White House’s “’Twas the Night Before Christmas” theme — and a major engineering project, given its location in what’s essentially a working museum. “A lot of people don’t realize you’re not allowed to affix anything to the original White House structure,” Jonathan noted. “Exactly,” Stephen said. “If you see these columns, there’s one piece of board that’s put up across the top [of them] and that’s your only attachment.”

Jonathan and Drew stepped in to help install the papier-mache reindeer. “When [the First Lady] brought up the idea to have the reindeer flying, everybody went into action mode trying to figure out how to make it happen — and they actually pulled it off!” Jonathan said.

Stephen and his team also brought the poem’s “visions of sugar plums” to life in the Grand Foyer with a delicate, life-size dancer that twirls on a pudding. If HGTV’s hosts are any indication, she’ll be inspiring some fancy footwork. “Every single time Drew walked past the sugar plum fairy as we were building it, he had to do a little twirl,” Jonathan said. “She’s more graceful than I am,” Drew conceded.

“To continue the theme of “’Twas the Night Before Christmas,” we decided that we would do ‘not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse,’” Stephen explained. “In this niche, the mouse’s head nods back and forth like he’s sleeping, and then you can see the fire already moving [in the hearth beneath him].” “You’re literally bringing what is probably the most famous holiday fairy tale to life!” Jonathan exclaimed. “That’s why everybody loves Christmas,” Stephen said.

White House Chief Calligrapher Lee Ann Clark — whose team is responsible for the design and execution of all of the White House’s social and official documents — also spearheads special projects like the presentation of Clement Clarke Moore’s poetry. His verse appears here in ink and in an even more festive medium in the State Dining Room. (More on that in a bit.)

The Grand Foyer’s Cross Hall also displays the official White House Menorah, seen here at right near the foot of the Grand Staircase, which the White House Executive Residence Carpentry shop created in 2021 with wood preserved from renovations made under President Truman. The menorah became an official addition to the White House archives in a Hanukkah ceremony last year. Jimmy Carter was the first President to observe Hanukkah in Washington, DC, at the first National Menorah Lighting in Lafayette Park in 1979. His portrait now hangs beside the Menorah.

At one end of the Grand Foyer’s Cross Hall, the White House’s largest reception hall welcomes visitors with festive displays that count the days until Christmas. “The East Room this year is all things advent,” Emily explains, “so we have an advent calendar just grown in scale and come to life all over the room.” Like the papier-mache figures that come to life throughout the White House’s holiday tableaux, these advent calendars are magically functional. Opening their doors reveals sweet surprises.

The East Room also features the White House’s Neapolitan crèche, which was first loaned to then-First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy in 1961 by the philanthropist Mrs. Charles W. Englehard. Featuring 22 carved wood and terra-cotta figurines, the 18th-century crèche was pictured on President Kennedy’s 1963 Christmas card, and Mrs. Englehard gifted it to Lady Bird Johnson in 1967.

The ornament arrangements on the East Room’s garlands are an ideal holiday DIY for beginners, White House volunteer Renee Givens explained. “It’s a really simple, easy assembly that anybody can do at home,” she said. “What we’ve been taking is floral wire and putting it through our ornaments, and we’ve been making beautiful clusters to add to our garlands.”

Advent calendars, in turn, were an ideal pre-Christmas marauding target for Drew. “When Drew was a kid he would sneak down and he would poke open all of the [advent calendar’s] little cardboard doors and look to see what was inside,” Jonathan recalled. “Or I would replace them with candy that was less desirable,” Drew admitted.

“There are advent calendars and then there are advent calendars,” Jonathan noted. He and Drew added roof panels and columns to this installation. The painted cookies have a personal connection for the First Lady: “That’s one of the things I loved when I was a little girl that I [then] surprised my own kids with,” she told the Scott brothers when they toured the finished room. This calendar’s Day 8 opens to reveal her family’s holiday swirl cookies.

The elegant Green Room’s holiday decor features candles and stained glass to represent the peace, strength and joy we find in faith; its windows feature both reflective fabric and light-catching, embroidered starbursts arranged among crystals and prisms. The space’s stunning green moiré silk wall covering was installed in 2007, but its look dates back to the moss-green moiré first chosen by First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy in 1962.

“The ornaments that we’re making are repurposed tin flowers; we’re putting shiny things on them, like rhinestones and pieces of foil, and they’re going to go on the tree and also on the garland on the mantel,” White House volunteer Kaye Olsson told Jonathan. The candles, in turn, are battery-operated, “and then we put mirrors behind them to reflect even more light,” she explained.

This year’s official White House Christmas Tree, an 18.5-foot Fraser Fir, was presented to the First Lady by siblings Amber Scott and Alex Church of Cline Church Nursery in Fleetwood, North Carolina. Decoration here begins with a bit of removal, since the Blue Room’s intricate chandelier has to be relocated to accommodate the tree’s full height.

As White House Designer Bryan Rafanelli told Jonathan and Drew, the White House Christmas Tree features miniature villages and neighborhoods representing each and every state and territory in the country. “The idea is that people are going to come in here and try and find their state,” he explained. “I love that it’s inclusive,” Jonathan said.

On loan to the White House from the Train Collectors Association, a vintage replica passenger train circles the base of the tree in the Blue Room. As the First Lady noted, President Biden has a special place in his heart for trains: “He took Amtrak from our home estate of Delaware to Washington for over 30 years when he was in the Senate,” she said. “I think that if they don’t have a train now, every child who sees this is going to want a train,” Jonathan said.

Jonathan and Drew helped Bryan and his team install a tunnel of wooden gift boxes for the vintage train encircling the White House Christmas Tree. When the tunnel was in place, Drew was entrusted with the “inaugural turn-on of the train,” as he put it. (That’s a technical term, we assume.)

Like the Ground Floor Corridor, the Red Room spotlights contributions from children; here, the decor honors children in military families. “Military children from every state and territory across our country drew pictures and paintings, and we hung them on the tree,” the First Lady said. The room’s traditional cranberry sub-theme got a bit of a twist this year: In lieu of the customary topiary, it features "popcorn garlands" created with chenille yarn and red wooden "berries"as a nod to the centuries-old tradition of creating homespun Christmas decorations with the kernels at hand.

Garlands in the Red Room’s windows feature humble but infinitely-applicable craft supplies like spools of yarn, pom poms and dry noodles — and Drew was smitten. “I love the creativity! The moment [I] walk in here my creative brain is activating because I see all the cool things and some of the crafting I used to do when I was a kid,” he said.

Visitors to the State Dining room get a behind-the-scenes look at Santa’s workshop — complete with work benches, ladders and presents-in-progress that encircle its two trees. This space is the center of White House hospitality, and Chief Carpenter Robert Thompson and his team reimagined it as a symbolic space to represent the hard work of its staff and volunteers.

Composed of 40 sheets of gingerbread dough, this year’s Gingerbread White House shares the spotlight with a storybook made of 40 sheets of sugar cookie dough; together the confections boast 90 pounds of pastillage, 30 pounds of chocolate and 50 pounds of royal icing. Pastry Chef Carlo Figarella tasked Jonathan with using icing to add a sledder to the slopes surrounding the house.

Just two and a half inches of clearance separated the sugar-cookie storybook from the bottom of the China Room’s exit. “You know,” Jonathan told Executive Pastry Chef Susie Morrison as the creation made its way out of the room, “I could have just rebuilt this door frame for you.” “No,” Drew reminded him, “no touching the House!” Happily, the Gingerbread White House survived the China Room, Drew’s driving and reentry at the North Portico (and the China Room survived Jonathan).

“This really was buzzing like Santa’s workshop,” Jonathan said. “With all the volunteers in here — I think 302 people here volunteering, and then all of your team — what do you think?” Drew asked the First Lady. “At the end of the day, how does this feel?”

“It feels amazing, and I have so much gratitude to all the volunteers for making this the People’s House,” she replied.

“I love the fact that you have infused so much tradition that also reaches every family, because every family has a little something different. But all these ideas that you’ve come up with have really hit the cross section of everybody across the country,” Jonathan told the First Lady. “And your creativity, I was so impressed! Every year, there are so many rooms and so many ideas, but can I be blunt? You knocked it out of the park.”