Gone are the bare white branches and blood-red forests that once adorned the halls of the White House in December. Instead, they’ve been replaced with classic Christmas trees and standard-issue garlands.
While first lady Melania Trump’s Christmas decorations leaned more avant-garde in her first term, during a visit to the White House on Monday, I saw she has taken a more traditional approach in her second term as first lady.
Now, President Donald Trump is the one making dramatic White House design choices.
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This year, the first lady chose to decorate the White House around the theme of “Home Is Where The Heart Is,” drawing inspiration from the nostalgia of childhood toys and the transformative symbolism of butterflies, according to the 2025 “Christmas at the White House” guidebook.
Her signature detail is the red bows that appear on the 75 wreaths in the White House windows, a more conventional choice in line with past first ladies’ holiday displays.
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Melania Trump’s yuletide aesthetic plays it safe — an approach that has been reflected in other areas of her life.
Her fashion choices have been noticeably more muted than the outfits she wore during her first term as first lady. She often opts for skirt suits in gray and beige with only the occasional vibrant piece, a departure from her statement-making and sometimes controversial style during the first Trump administration.
She also told Fox News in January that instead of residing at the White House full time, she planned to divide her time between Washington, DC, Trump Tower in New York City, and Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, making her public appearances more infrequent.
Contrasting styles on display
While Melania Trump keeps a lower profile at the White House, Donald Trump’s is doing anything but.
In addition to adding numerous gold embellishments to the Oval Office and portraits of himself to the Cross Hall, he oversaw the demolition of the entire East Wing to build a 90,000-square-foot ballroom.
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This disparity was evident when I visited the White House to view the Christmas decorations on Monday.
The absence of the East Entrance and East Colonnade, due to the demolition of the East Wing, left the first lady with a smaller canvas to decorate.
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The halls lined with Christmas trees and garlands chosen by Melania Trump were certainly beautiful. The decor featured “Be Best” ornaments in a nod to her initiative focused on children’s wellness and AI-generated, 3D printed ornaments in recognition of her Presidential Artificial Intelligence Challenge.
The piece of decor that attracted the largest crowd was one of Donald Trump’s design contributions: a portrait by artist Marc Lipp depicting the president with his fist in the air after surviving an assassination attempt.
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Melania Trump may have been the one to deck the halls, but it was Donald Trump who seemed to steal the show.