On Monday, Nov. 21, Jill Biden received the White House’s 2022 Christmas tree. She posed with the massive tree, which was brought to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue via a horse-drawn carriage, in front of the residence’s entrance.
The first lady was joined by a special guest for the annual tradition. She held hands with her 2-year-old grandson Beau Biden as the tree was delivered.
This year’s tree is an 18.5-foot Concolor Fir, presented by the Shealer Family of Evergreen Acres Christmas Tree Farm in Auburn, Pennsylvania. Paul and Pam Shealer's farm was selected as the 2022 Grand Champion Grower in the National Christmas Tree Association's annual contest. Previously, the same farm provided a tree for the Clinton White House in 2000.
Christmas trees have been featured at the historic landmark since the Benjamin Harrison administration in 1889, according to the White House Historical Association.
The first White House Christmas tree was displayed in the Second Floor Oval Room. After electricity was installed in 1891, lights were added to the Christmas tree in 1894 during Grover Cleveland’s presidency.
During her husband’s time in the White House, first lady Mamie Eisenhower started to consistently place a tree in the Blue Room. As the next first lady, Jacqueline Kennedy carried on the tradition and added a theme. Since then, a themed Christmas tree has appeared in the Blue Room every year.
Last year, Jill Biden and President Joe Biden announced that the holiday decorations would honor the frontline workers who selflessly cared for patients during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Gifts From the Heart” was the theme and the first lady invited Maryland second graders to see the decorations in person.
In the 2021 White House holiday guidebook, the 46th president and his wife wrote, “The things we hold sacred unite us and transcend distance, time, and even the constraints of a pandemic: faith, family, and friendship; a love of the arts, learning, and nature; gratitude, service, and community; unity and peace. These are the gifts that tie together the heart strings of our lives. These are the gifts from the heart.”
The 2021 Blue Room Christmas tree stood at 18-feet tall and was covered in white doves and ribbon with the names of all U.S. states and territories to symbolize peace and unity.
It took 41 Christmas trees, about 6,000 feet of ribbon, around 300 candles and over 10,000 ornaments to create the magnificent display of holiday decor last year.
In the State Dining room, knit stockings hanging from the mantle celebrated the “Gift of Family” and all the Biden grandchildren–Naomi, 28, Finnegan, 22, Maisy, 21, Natalie, 18, and Robert Hunter Biden II, 16, and baby Beau.
Jill Biden has not revealed the 2022 theme yet, but the first lady typically starts planning for the festivities as early as June.
Beau Biden is the son of Hunter Biden and Melissa Cohen, who wed in 2019. The young boy is named after Hunter Biden's late brother (and President Joe Biden's son) of the same name, a former attorney general of Delaware and military veteran, who died at 46 in 2015 of brain cancer.