Seasonal Trivia

[L Verge]

(12-21-2017 01:38 AM)AussieMick Wrote:  

(12-20-2017 06:22 PM)L Verge Wrote:  Assuming that most of us now have our Christmas tree(s) up and decorated, here's a little guessing game for you. Which President had the most decorated Christmas trees in the White House in just one year of his administration?

I can only think of Mr Trump.

Am I the only one that thinks it odd that so many people associated with the Presidency have names that only Charles Dickens could invent ??? ...

Just a few examples ...
Coleman Smoot (lent $200 to Lincoln 1834)
Mr and Mrs Bowling Green
Thurlow Weed
Joshua Speed
Horace Greeley
Silas Cobb
Ward Hill Lamon
Franklin Pierce
Hannibal Hamlin
Jubal Early
...
Donald Trump
even Lincoln's step mother having the surnames of 3 presidents.

I guess none of us is perfect and I always think its wrong to comment on any oddity in a person's name. Even though I've just done exactly that.

Well, you thought of the correct one! Until the last week of November this year, the answer as to which Presidency sported the most trees in the White House in one year would have been the administration of Bill Clinton with 36 trees the year the theme was Santa's Workshop.

However, the new administration has 53 trees throughout the mansion. Here's a description of what went into the decorating -- and it is really very similar to what has gone on over the past forty or so years:

White House staffers and more than 150 volunteers wrapped 180,000 feet of lights around 53 Christmas trees and hung more than 12,000 ornaments, first lady Melania Trump’s office said. They placed 71 wreaths on the doors and windows of the presidential mansion. Pastry chefs made and decorated 31,000 Christmas cookies and built a 350-pound gingerbread replica of the White House adorned with candy.

It used to be such a treat to visit the mansion at Christmas time. Our museum sponsored bus trips to the event for several years back in the 1980s. I would love to visit this year because the photos are really spectacular, especially some of the main halls with all-white and silver themes (really a winter wonderland to me).

However, several of our fault-finding media here called it "cold and creepy." Several even questioned whether or not President Trump was paying for it. I don't recall that ever being questioned before with his predecessors, and I suspect that those decorations are recycled from past years and anything new is budgeted in ahead of time.

As you can tell, I have very little respect for the average media reports. I recently saw a report from London discussing all the trees at Buckingham Palace. I wonder if the press in the UK questions who pays for the decorations.

---

I don't want to belabor the White House decorations, but go here to get a peek: https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/white-h...s-2017/33/ Watch carefully because you will see Mr. Lincoln in two of the photos. OOPS, the link opens at the last photo, so you will need to click backwards to see each one.

Seasonal Trivia Question #2 - who first recorded Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer?