The White House Ornament 2008 Honoring President Benjamin Harrison's Administration

A Red, White and Blue White House Christmas

President Benjamin Harrison's Family

President Benjamin Harrison's grandchildren, Mary McKee, Marthena Harrison and Baby McKee, have a party in the second-floor nursery of the White House. As we have written in other posts, President Harrison built an Adirondack camp on Second Lake on the Fulton Chain of lakes in the Adirondacks. He called it Berkeley Lodge. It still stands today and is privately owned.

The White House Christmas Tree Arrives

North Portico
The White House
10:32 A.M. EST

MRS. BUSH: Hi, everybody. How are you all? Well, we're here once again -- Christmas comes faster and faster the older you get, I think. This year, the Boteks, from Pennsylvania, have given the big tree, and these are their grandchildren who are on the wagon up here, that brought the tree in.

We're so excited to once again start all the decorations. The decorators are here from around the country to decorate the White House, and I think we'll reveal the decorations to all of you this Thursday, I believe. They'll finish up probably on Wednesday and then we'll invite the press inside to come see it. And the big, big tree that the Boteks have grown in Pennsylvania will be the tree in the Blue Room, decorated beautifully once again for this holiday season.

I'm so thrilled and honored that you all would donate a tree to the White House this season. Thank you all very, very much, and thank you for your long interest in growing trees -- they've been growing trees, they've had a tree farm since 1964, so that's a wonderful thing. So thanks, everybody, and happy holidays -- this is the very start of the holidays, even though it's not even December, but we're getting ready to have it be December.

END 10:34 A.M.

Executive Office of the President, Washington

In 1990, I worked in this building, the Old Executive Office Building, now known as the Eisenhower Executive Office Building and originally the State War and Navy Building. It is the Executive Office of the President. Everything about it is massive, impressive. I remember the way the halls smelled, like fresh flowers and power. The black and white marble tiled floors and oak paneling. The massive oak doors and enormous windows. The Office of Communications, home of the Office of Presidential Speechwriting, was on the first floor, just around the corner from the entrance on Pennsylvania Avenue. I think it was Room 120. The carpet of the main office was blue and the telephone was a remnant of the Eisenhower administration. (The Clintons took them out and installed new, hi-tech phones.) When the phones rang, they went "ding-ding", like a doorbell - quiet and smooth like everything within the black wrought iron gates that surround the White House Complex. The trees were perfect. The lawn was perfect, mowed at night with silent mowers so as not to disturb the First Family and the White House Staff. The basement level had a Secret Service gift shop, where you could buy USSS baseball caps and patches. When a staff member departed, we held a party in the Indian Treaty Room, with glasses imprinted with the presidential seal and chilled beer in White House Mess trunks filled with ice. I liked to attend the departures and arrivals of the President on Marine One, on the South Lawn, especially at night when few if any spectators were there. It was -- magical.