Inside Melania Trump's Final White House Christmas Decor
It's that time of year again: 'tis the season for the First Lady to reveal the holiday decor she chose for the White House. The country often waits with great anticipation to see the festive decor that the First Family will enjoy during the Christmas season. In the past, Melania Trump's choices haven't always opened to great fanfare. We remember when in 2017, the bare white trees with under-lighting in an otherwise-dark room felt more like a haunted house than a festive forest (via Time). And then the next year, in 2018, the all-red trees caused people to make jokes about the uniforms women wore in The Handmaids Tale (via Vox).
So this year, we wondered what she might come up with during her husband's last Christmas in office. And it's clear she had different design advice than in previous years.
Melania Trump has mixed feelings about doing the decor
This year's reveal featured halls filled to the brim with perfect green trees adorned with red ornaments, perfect red bows, and glistening white lights. The video, which you can watch on YouTube, follows the first lady as she turns corner after corner, revealing one classic Christmas wonder after another: toy trains speeding around a glittering tree, a forest of pointsettas, and ornaments that would delight any child. It feels like the best moments of Home Alone.
As beautifully as Trump did this year, the display may be overshadowed by comments she made in private about the futility of such expectations. She expressed frustration at being expected to take on the holiday decor when there were legitimate political issues she should be tackling on the public stage instead. She said, in front of White House aid Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, who recorded the comments: "They say I'm complicit. I'm the same like him, I support him. I don't say enough, I don't do enough, where I am? I'm working my a** off on the Christmas stuff... who gives a f*** about the Christmas stuff and decorations? But I need to do it, right?" (via People).
But upon the revealing of the decor, Trump carried a different tune, saying in a press release: "From coast to coast, the bond that all American's share is an appreciation for our traditions, values, and history, which were the inspiration behind the decorations this year."