Design Crafters

Republican, Democrat, or somewhere in between, no matter which candidate ends up being elected President of the United States this fall, there’s one thing we can be nearly positive about:  the long-standing tradition of White House residents to send out Christmas cards each year will likely be continued. 

Technically speaking, the first presidential administration to send out official holiday greetings from the White House was the Eisenhower administration in 1953, President Calvin Coolidge wrote out a holiday greeting on White House stationery in 1927 that was published in newspapers across the country.  Since then, the presidential Christmas cards have been sent out each and every year.  It’s estimated that around 2,000 cards were sent out in the first decade of this practice, but in recent years, it’s not unusual for approximately 1.4 million cards to be mailed out from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue over the holidays.  Among the recipients of the presidential Christmas cards members of the Cabinet and Congress, foreign heads of state and government officials, and American ambassadors abroad, as well as countless “ordinary people” (also known as your neighbors and family who are registered voters).

There’s a collection of Presidential Christmas cards in the White House archives; from time to time, they are on display for visitors to see.  It’s interesting to see how the card artwork has evolved.  Subject matter of recent White House Christmas cards have featured artwork of, what else? The White House in a wintertime or Christmas setting, or perhaps an interior room of the White House decorated with Christmas trees and other holiday greenery.  In the early years of Presidential holiday greetings, though, photos of the Commander-in-Chief or even simply the Presidential seal appeared on the front of the official White House Christmas cards.