Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts

Monday, December 3, 2012

Inside the Christmas White House 2012

The hallway on the ground floor of the White House looking towards the East Garden Room, home of faux Bo/Patricia Leslie
The East Wing Visitor Entrance/Patricia Leslie
At the Visitor Entrance (outdoors)/Patricia Leslie
In the lobby upon entering. About 100 volunteers from 50 states spent a week decorating the White House which exudes an immediate and magnificent Fraser Fir fragrance to greet visitors and infuse magic, like when you get off the plane in Hawai'i/Patricia Leslie
The Armed Forces Tree where visitors are invited to sign postcards to troops and indicate the number of hours the signer is willing to commit to community service in honor of the servicemen's and women's commitment to the U.S. The White House holiday theme this year is Joy to All/Patricia Leslie
Looking out the large hallway windows on the ground floor towards "backyard decorations" and the Washington Monument in the distance, with a reflection of greenery lining above framed Christmas photos of the first families/Patricia Leslie
A life-size faux "Bo" with hanging lights and Santa hat guards the portraits of President Calvin Coolidge on the left, and President Grover Cleveland, in the East Garden Room/Patricia Leslie
After the East Garden Room, one comes to a hall on the ground floor with the Vermeil and China rooms on the left, the library on the right, and a cabinet with .../Patricia Leslie
"Part of a State Service first ordered by President John F. Kennedy" and made by Morgantown Glassware Guild, Morgantown, West Virginia in 1961/Patricia Leslie
 And another part of a State Service first ordered by President Andrew Jackson and made by Bakewell, Page & Bakewell, Pittsburgh in 1829/Patricia Leslie
First ladies Patricia Nixon, on the left, and Jacqueline Kennedy preside over the Vermeil Room  Are the gifts under the trees real?/Patricia Leslie
 The book collection in the library across the hall numbers about 2,700 volumes.  Until 1935 when it was renovated, the library was a laundry room and a gentlemen's waiting room, according to a booklet given to Christmas White House visitors/Patricia Leslie
The White House Library/Patricia Leslie
The China Room.  The White House has 54 Christmas trees. President Theodore Roosevelt, an "ardent conservationist," prohibited the cutting of trees for White House Christmases, but his cunning children sneaked one in past their papa, and decorated it with twinkling white lights (and an electrician's help), according to the booklet.  Students from Washington's Duke Ellington School for the Arts created the art for the booklet/Patricia Leslie
After leaving the ground floor and ascending the stairs, a visitor finds herself in the East Room peeking out windows onto Pennsylvania Avenue/Patricia Leslie
The East Room is the location of after-dinner entertainment, and was the scene of the soiree for guests and honorees attending Sunday night's Kennedy Center Honors/Patricia Leslie
From the East Room one glances down the hallway to Cross Hall and the North Entrance (Pennsylvania Avenue) on the right.  The entrance on the left is to the Blue Room and at the end of the hallway is the State Dining Room. More than 90,000 are expected to tour the White House during the holiday season/Patricia Leslie
But back to the East Room.  Whose portrait is behind the tree?/Patricia Leslie
A lighting fixture in the East Room/Patricia Leslie
Part of a tree in the Green Room, the next room on the tour/Patricia Leslie
The Green Room and above the mantle, the oldest publicly displayed portrait in the White House, according to a friendly, erudite White House veteran. ("We don't know what's upstairs, so it may not be the oldest one here.")  David Martin painted Benjamin Franklin in 1767, and 200 years later, Walter Annenberg gave it to the White House in memory of President Kennedy. The silhouette of a man barely visible on the left in the painting is Sir Isaac Newton/Patricia Leslie
"Bed head," a Christmas bird cage, or ? in the Green Room/Patricia Leslie
In the Blue Room, the next one on the tour, is found THE official White House Christmas tree filled with ornaments made by military children stationed with their parents around the world. The Fraser Fir is 18.5 feet tall and came from Jefferson, N.C./Patricia Leslie
 The Red Room (photos below) follows the Blue Room on the tour and next is the State Dining Room, above, anchored by George F. P. Healy's portrait of President Abraham Lincoln.  About 120 persons can be seated here comfortably for dinner, a guide said, and the president and first lady do not sit together/Patricia Leslie
The 300-pound gingerbread house at the north end of the State Dining Room.  Note the table legs.  Behind these doors is the Family Dining Room, closed to visitors/Patricia Leslie
From the State Dining Room is the Red Room with the Blue Room on the other side/Patricia Leslie
In Cross Hall at the Pennsylvania Avenue entrance /Patricia Leslie
The Red Room from the Entrance Hall.  Normally, Dolley Madison reigns over the Red Room, however, her portrait is on loan to the National Portrait Gallery until late winter, a guide said/Patricia Leslie
One of many first lady ornaments which decorate the four first ladies trees at the Pennsylvania Avenue entrance. More than 60 percent of the White House ornaments have been "re-purposed" or recycled/Patricia Leslie
One of the state ornaments hanging at the Pennsylvania Avenue entrance/Patricia Leslie
In the Entrance Hall with a tree reflected in the mirror/Patricia Leslie
The reflected tree and out the window is Pennsylvania Avenue/Patricia Leslie
It was World AIDS Day (and Night)/Patricia Leslie
Not to be overlooked next door is the gracious and imposing David Eisenhower Executive Office Building/Patricia Leslie


For a look at last year's White House decorations, click here.


Feliz Navidad!
































Saturday, December 24, 2011

Inside the Christmas White House 2011

Like tall ballerinas dancing pirouettes in sparkling floor length gowns trying to capture the most attention from an awestruck audience, real Christmas trees grace every room, standing shimmering in lights and decorations, ready to receive admiring glances/Photo by Patricia Leslie
Cross Hall at the main White House entrance/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Not far from Aaron Shikler's 1970 portrait of President John F. Kennedy, members of the Shenandoah Valley Children's Choir in Harrisonburg, Virgina sing Christmas hymns in the Entrance Hall/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Hushed crowds are captured by the moment and the reality they are but fleeting visitors in the president's home (the People's House) where the unmistakable fragrance of Fraser fir greets them at every entrance. 

None of that fake stuff, if you please.  This is real.
 
In the East Room/Photo by Patricia Leslie
The East Room/Photo by Patricia Leslie
Garlands, real garlands, flow from door, window, and mirror tops to floors. Necklaces of the season decorate mirrors. 
Bulbs grow below a window in the East Room/Photo by Patricia Leslie
Tiny spotlights powered by smaller batteries, brighten the huge gingerbread White House in the State Dining Room/Photo by Patricia Leslie
The State Dining Room and a portrait of President Abraham Lincoln. The banners on the trees say "Shine, Give, Share," this year's White House Christmas theme/Photo by Patricia Leslie
In the Red Room with Henry Inman's 1842 portrait of Angelica Singleton Van Buren /Photo by Patricia Leslie
The biggest Christmas tree, the official White House tree, is found in the Blue Room, the focus of attention upon entering the main White House threshold. Stretching to the ceiling, it pays tribute to the troops whose children made the Christmas cards which hang with military medals from almost every branch of the special tree/Photo by Patricia Leslie
The official White House Christmas tree hung with military medals and Christmas cards made by children of servicemen and servicewomen/Photo by Patricia Leslie
At the East Visitor Entrance is a table laden with postcards for visitors to inscribe messages to the troops to thank them for their service, and a few steps away is a mailbox for the deposits of gratitude.

Overhead in the Green Room were two guards chatting.  Said one, shaking his head:  "The question of the day has got to be: 'Is this the real White House?'"/Photo by Patricia Leslie
From the Green Room/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Parties, tours, and open houses galore.  The people are grateful for the opportunities to visit our house, the president's house.  What other nation permits it?
From the East Visitor Entrance Hall on the ground floor/Photo by Patricia Leslie
Along the East Visitor Entrance Hall decorated on the right with Christmas photos of American presidents and their families/Photo by Patricia Leslie


Just outside the Library on the ground floor is a poinsettia tree/Photo by Patricia Leslie
The China Room on the ground floor with Grace Coolidge presiding/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Seen on the ground floor without his Santa hat was Henry Clay/Photo by Patricia Leslie
  
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