#White House holiday decor invites visitors to embrace ‘their inner child’

The White House is aiming for visitors to embrace “their inner child” with its annual holiday decor, with a theme “inspired by how children experience this festive season.”

The theme, “Magic, Wonder, and Joy,” the White House announced on Monday, attempts to capture the “pure, unfiltered delight and imagination of childhood.”

Each room at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., Jill Biden said in remarks released by the White House ahead of an event on Monday unveiling the decor before National Guard families, is designed so guests “see this time of year through the wondrous, sparkling eyes of children.”

The festive decorations include nearly 15,000 feet of ribbon, more than 142,000 holiday lights, more than 33,000 ornaments and 22,000 bells.

Several of the spaces include a nod to “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas” — the classic poem and book is marking its 200^th anniversary this year. Several editions of the work from the last two centuries were provided by the Library of Congress and are on display as part of the White House’s adornments.

The famed Gingerbread White House also gathers some sweet inspiration from the Christmastime poem, with a sugar cookie replica of “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas.” The gingerbread version of the executive mansion took 40 sheets of sugar cookie dough, 90 lbs. of pastillage, 40 sheets of gingerbread dough, 30 lbs. of chocolate and 50 lbs. of royal icing to create, according to the White House.

The Blue Room features this year’s official White House Christmas tree: an 18.5 foot Fraser fir from North Carolina. The chandelier in the Blue Room is removed each year in order to fit the massive evergreen.

“Magic, wonder and joy,” Jill Biden said in her prepared remarks.

“I know they can feel hard to find sometimes — as days grow shorter, and the weather colder; as our hearts grow heavy in the face of a tumultuous world; as we miss those who are no longer with us, an empty seat at our holiday gatherings.”

“But it’s in these times, when we are searching for hope and healing, that we need those points of light the most — that we need each other the most,” Biden, a Northern Virginia Community College professor, said.

“It’s in these times that I hope you remember, if even just for a moment or a season, how you saw the world as a child,” the first lady said.

More than 300 volunteers from across the country devoted a week to decorating both the interior and exterior of the White House.

Approximately 100,000 visitors are expected at the White House throughout the holiday season.