First Lady Jill Biden has taken a symbolic stand in the eternal debate over when it’s appropriate to put up Christmas decorations. This year is her final Christmas in the White House before the Trump family moves back in and Melania Trump again has her jolly way with pretending she “gives a fuck about the Christmas stuff,” menacing blood-red topiary and all. Ho-ho-hooooly crap, anyone else need a little Christmas right this very minute after the year we’ve had? Yeah, Jill, us too.
The first lady took delivery of the official White House Christmas tree, the big guy that goes in the Blue Room, the job every tree dreams of and gossips about in their wood-wide-web tea sessions, on Monday afternoon. The 18-and-a-half-foot Frasier fir arrived on a green carried festooned with wreaths, driven by a gentleman in a top hat, and pulled by a pair of Clydesdale horses. You can tell that Dr. Jill means business just by looking at these horses and their big hooves. Huge. Yule be wise to show these horses some respect. Their names, if you wondered, are Ben and Dillion, per the White House.
Accompanied by her grandson Beau, and introduced by a military band’s rendition of “O Christmas Tree,” an original choice, the first lady greeted the tree and its people, the Cartner Family, proprietors of the appropriately named Cartner’s Christmas Tree Farm in Newland, North Carolina. The region, including the Cartners’ farm, was hit hard by Hurricane Helene, but this tree survived until it was pressed into White House service.
“The Cartner family lost thousands of trees in the storm, but this one remained standing, and they named it ‘Tremendous’ for the extraordinary hope that it represents,” Biden told the assembled crowd, taking glee in the pun, “Tree-mendous.” Biden invited three North Carolina National Guard members and their families to watch her take the delivery, as well as Rep. Virginia Foxx.
This is the third time a North Carolina-grown tree has graced 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. during President Joe Biden’s administration. In 2021, Jefferson, North Carolina’s Peak Farms provided the tree, and last year, Fleetwood, North Carolina’s Cline Church Nursery brought the boughs. In 2022, the tree came from Evergreen Acres Christmas Tree Farm in Auburn, Pennsylvania, and was also an outlier by being a Concolor Fir, rather than a Frasier, as the other three were. (The more you know! [shooting star trailing a rainbow]
It’s not that the Bidens have a particular thing for North Carolina Christmas trees: The farm providing the White House Christmas tree is determined by the National Christmas Tree Association’s contest, with the group’s Grand Champion Grower getting the nod.
A flock of volunteers will help decorate the tree and the White House in coming days, and on December 2, the first lady will announce the theme of this year’s decor and allow members of the press in to gaze upon her garlands.
And, if we’ve learned any rules, it’s that there are no rules, so if Jill wants her tree now, we say Jill gets her tree now. Lizzie Post, co-president of The Emily Post Institute, concedes there's no real rule. When asked by House Beautiful about etiquette around Christmas decor before Thanksgiving, she threw some light shade.
“Most people find it tasteful to stick within the weeks or the month of the holiday itself,” she said. “That said, there is no etiquette that dictates it. It’s the same way you can paint your house neon orange with blue stripes—there’s nothing that says you can’t. It’s really, do you want to be the person who does?”
Being “the person who does,” however, has psychological perks: Research has shown that decorating for the holidays can boost social connections and positive associations, and help people's moods in—ahem—difficult times. In the push-pull between etiquette and good vibes, we know where the first lady stands.
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