What U.S. President decorated the first White House Christmas Tree?

Benjamin Harrison decorated the first White House Christmas tree in 1889. The tree was placed in the second-floor Oval Room, then used as a family parlor and library, during Harrison’s presidency.

It was a private family tree rather than the large public display associated with the modern White House. The tree was lit with candles and decorated with toys and gifts. Harrison’s grandchildren, Benjamin and Mary McKee, were among those who saw it on Christmas morning.

A common mix-up concerns electric lights. Grover Cleveland’s administration is often credited with introducing electric Christmas-tree lights at the White House in 1894, several years after Harrison’s candlelit tree. Another separate tradition is the National Christmas Tree, first lit by President Calvin Coolidge in 1923.

The modern practice of giving the official Blue Room tree a specific decorative theme began much later, when First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy introduced that approach in 1961. Those later traditions should not be confused with Harrison’s first documented White House Christmas tree.