Blood-red trees these are not.
The first lady has overseen holiday decorations at the White House since 1961, when Jacqueline Kennedy hung ornaments of toys, birds and angels themed to “The Nutcracker” ballet on a Christmas tree in the Blue Room. This year was no different. In a one-minute video posted to Twitter on Monday, Melania Trump unveiled this year’s theme, “America the Beautiful,” which she translated as green trees decorated with red, gold and silver ornaments and white lights, a style so traditional that it could grace the cover of Martha Stewart Living. The east colonnade this year features simple black urns holding plumes of foliage and greenery from each state and territory. The bold aesthetic choices that drew so much flack and snarky memes in Christmases past are noticeably absent. There are no blood-red trees, as there were in 2018, which various news outlets called “creepy” and “deeply haunted.” There is nothing akin to the icy, underlit branches of 2017 that turned the East Colonnade into what some likened to a barren, dystopian landscape. This year, a toy train — the “UFEE964A9071528AC734CB7697C5614E Express” — circles a wreath placed on a center table.
