The White House Didn’t Have a Christmas Tree Until 1889

The 2023 holiday decorations at the White House include 98 Christmas trees, but the Executive Mansion hasn’t always been bedecked by firs this time of year. It wasn’t until 1889, during President Benjamin Harrison’s administration, that a Christmas tree first appeared on the White House grounds. Just five years later, President Grover Cleveland became the first President to swap candles for electric tree lights, and it took another three decades before Calvin Coolidge lit the country’s first national Christmas tree in 1923.