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Our Price: $24.95
Product Details:
Type: Miscellaneous
Item#: c7410
Dimensions: 3" X 3 ¾"
Comes in a keepsake box
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From the White House to your home... celebrating Christmas
The "Official 2009 White House Christmas Ornament"
by Collectible
The "Official 2009 White House Christmas Ornament" honors the second administration of President Grover Cleveland. The only president of the United States elected to two non-consecutive terms, Grover Cleveland served as the 22nd president from 1885 to 1889 and as the 24th from 1893 to 1897. The "Official 2009 White House Christmas Ornament" illustrates the special place of the Christmas tree in the holiday celebrations of President Cleveland’s young family. The central hologram depicts the south facade of the White House after an evening snowfall. The warm glow of the first Christmas tree to be illuminated by electric lights is seen through the tall windows of the second floor Oval Room beyond the center of the columned portico.
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The reverse side of the ornament recreates a scene from the tree-trimming parties of President and Mrs. Cleveland, which were held annually for their children and those of cabinet members. The words of a period newspaper report help to describe the president’s delight in preparing Christmas day for his young family. A finely crafted gold plated wreath of snowflakes, painted ice blue and white, frames the oval ornament.
Christmas at the Cleveland White House naturally focused on the president's daughters, Ruth, Esther, and Marion. Mrs. Cleveland made the Christmas tree, stylishly laden with toys, the center of White House holiday decorations. President Cleveland preferred the old-fashioned tradition of hanging stockings on the fireplace mantel and insisted on stuffing them with bon bons in the toes, figs in the heels, and toys to fill the legs. The Cleveland's hosted an annual Christmas Eve children's party for their tots and for the children of Cabinet members. That evening they also gave turkeys to the married staff members and gifts to the rest.
To the delight of her daughters, Mrs. Cleveland placed through the Christmases ever more elaborate trees in the library. An 1896 newspaper account described the family’s tree as "a tremendous pine, fully twenty feet tall" laden with presents and decorated with "tinsel and twinkling with red, white and blue electric lights." Christmas morning the girls opened their gifts and the president and first lady joined the excited children making merry with their new toys. Christmas at the Cleveland White House, as an Illinois reporter described it in 1896, was a "children’s festival."
This heirloom quality Christmas ornament comes in a keepsake box and includes a Historical Essay about Grover Cleveland’s second presidential term and the Clevelands’ Christmas celebrations. 3" X 3 ¾"
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