White House Holiday Cards Offer Cheer Through the Decades

McKnight’s work that year was such a hit that Hillary Clinton invited the artist to do the 1995 and 1996 cards, which were based on his paintings of the Blue Room and the Green Room festooned in Christmas finery. ​

President George W. Bush's 2005 holiday card featured a Bible verse.

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First Lady Laura Bush was the decider when an artist’s work was being chosen during the presidency of her husband George W. Bush, says Anita McBride, who was the first lady’s chief of staff and is the executive in residence at American University’s Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies. Together the First Couple chose a Bible verse for their cards, she says. ​ ​

Sending out holiday greetings “is the simplest way to tell your supporters and friends and people you have worked with, you've met on the road or whatever it might be, to say thank you and to wish them a happy holiday,” McBride says. “The kindest gesture and the simplest gesture is to send them a card.”​

President Obama's 2013 holiday card opened to a pop-up of the White House.

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So what role do these cards play?

Holiday cards also are mailed to foreign heads of state since “in the world of diplomacy, those things matter,” according to McBride, who earlier worked in the White House during the presidencies of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.​

For President Barack Obama the holiday cards were a way to foster relationships and share a festive feeling, says First Lady Michelle Obama’s former press secretary, Katie McCormick Lelyveld. “This was a tradition that was both part of White House history, but also part of personal history, being able to connect with friends each holiday,” she says. ​

One important note: Taxpayer funds don’t bankroll the mailings. Depending on which party holds the White House, the Republican National Committee or Democratic National Committee foots the bill.​

Collector’s items​

How the Tradition Started

In 1927 President Calvin Coolidge issued the first official Christmas greeting to the American people by asking newspapers to publish what he had written on White House stationery: ​“Christmas is not a time or a season but a state of mind. To cherish peace and good will, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas. If we think on these things, there will be born in us a Savior and over us will shine a star sending its gleam of hope to the world.”​

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Today’s emphasis on digital communication means that paper cards with specially chosen messages represent an “art form of the written note [that] is less and less used,” says McCormick Lelyveld. That makes the traditional cards mailed by the White House special.​

“Digital efficiency is fine, but at the end of the day, there's something much more memorable, much more significant about opening a piece of mail, feeling that connection, feeling seen and valued ... and having that memory that you can put on your mantel,” she says.​

But what goes on the mantel often does not stay on the mantel. Typically these collectibles are cherished and kept for years — at least until somebody cleans out an attic and no longer wants them. Sometimes after the original recipient has passed away, their heirs decide to pitch such memorabilia, says Steve Ferber, 68, who, with his wife, owns Lori Ferber Presidential Collectibles in Scottsdale, Arizona, which has been selling White House memorabilia for almost 50 years.​

On the internet, they sell White House holiday cards as well as larger format gift prints, which are produced in smaller quantities for a select group that includes White House staffers and ambassadors. ​

Most of the cards and gift prints carry facsimile signatures of the president since, as Ferber says, if the commander-in-chief were forced to sign them all “there would be no time left for the president to run the country.”​

In 1989, President George H.W. Bush and First Lady Barbara Bush shared holiday greetings with a card that featured the White House decorated for the season.

GEORGE H W BUSH PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

People who collect White House holiday cards and other political memorabilia tend to be older Americans, he says, in part because younger people as digital natives are more likely to be minimalists not wanting to be weighed down by “things.”

​​Nostalgia triggers people to purchase presidential holiday cards or buy one for a relative, friend or business colleague who admires a particular president, Ferber says. “It is that feeling around particularly the holiday times, of the memories that they have: the memories of different periods of their life and different presidents,” he says. “And it gives them a warm fuzzy feeling.”​