First lady Jill Biden decorated the White House for Christmas one last time before leaving the White House — but her holiday touches have prompted some Grinch-inspired responses.
The White House unveiled this year’s decorations on Monday to reflect the theme of “A Season of Peace and Light.” Christmas trees decorated with nearly 28,000 colorful ornaments feature each historic home and animals float around a hyper-hued, illuminated carousel in one.
“At the holidays, Americans come together each year in unity and faith, reminding us that we are stronger as a community than we are apart,” President Joe Biden and the first lady wrote confidently in their holiday message as the decorations were unveiled.
But even the decoration in the Bidens’ White House is not immune from the wrath of Republican critics, who have labeled the decoration “clownish”.
First Lady Jill Biden addresses National Guard families from across the state, who were the first members of the public to see the 2024 White House Christmas decorations on Monday. Republicans are already mocking his holiday decorations on social media (EPA)
“The White House Christmas decorations are circus-themed. How appropriate,” Sen. Josh Hawley’s Communications Director Abigail Jackson wrote on X.
“What is Nurse Jill doing with our White House? My God,” Jacob Schneider, director of Team Trump’s Rapid Response, wrote.
Greg Price, who is on Trump’s Rapid Response team, said: “Jill Biden’s Christmas decorations look like what would happen if a bunch of circus performers threw up all over the White House, which I guess is the perfect metaphor for ending the last four years.”
The WASA carousel rotates the White House Christmas Tree during a press preview of the 2024 holiday decorations at the White House on December 2 in Washington, DC. (Getty Images)
Conservative spokesman Benny Johnson also said: “Who taught Jill Biden to decorate for Christmas?”
Criticizing White House Christmas decorations seems to have become part of the holiday tradition.
When Melania Trump put on her “time-honored” jewelry in 2017, she was also hit with backlash.
“Melania Trump’s White House Christmas decorations look great if you add the Babadook,” one X user wrote at the time about what many saw as horror-inspired decorations.
Someone said: “The language is appalling and it’s an incredible waste of money. Great job!”
Former First Lady Melania Trump walks past Christmas decorations in the East Wing as she visits holiday decorations at the White House in Washington, DC, during the holiday season in 2017. (AFP via Getty Images)
The Daily Beast Cruelly he wrote at the time: “Melania Trump, with what appears to be the help of Tim Burton, has created a wonderful Christmas scene of white branches placed on the walls and casting terrible shadows on the ceiling, leading – at the end of the corridor – in the East Garden Room, an old Christmas tree bathed in golden light.”
The conference called the arrangement “‘Melania’s Nightmare Before Christmas’.”
The former first lady herself seemed to regard the whole tradition as a nightmare.
In a secret recording from mid-2018, obtained by CNN, Melania Trump told her senior adviser Stephanie Winston Wolkoff: “I’m working on… Christmas things and decorations? But I have to do it, right?”