December 8

December eighth, first Christmas Tree in the White House Blue Room (1912). From the New York Times, December 26, 1912: "With the President and Mrs. Taft at Panama, their son and daughter established a new precedent at the White House in the way of a Christmas party to-night. A large and gracefully proportioned fir tree had been put in place in the Blue Room, which in all White House History has never before known a decoration of this kind." President William Howard Taft was a dedicated Unitarian. In 1912, Taft’s daughter Helen arranged to have a Christmas tree in the White House Blue Room (the first of what has since become a tradition). Helen got her masters in history and at 26 was made a Dean, and soon after President, of Bryn Mawr College.