First Lady's Holiday: Red, White and Just a Touch Blue

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Laura Bush Shows White House Holiday Decor

First Lady Laura Bush talked about the people she'll miss at the White House and what she told Michelle Obama to expect when the new first family moves in.

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And then she was gone, leaving the media to meander through the glittering main floor and eat their way through the lobster salad, cheesy stone-ground grits and red, white and blue star-shaped cookies in the State Dining Room.

The decorations themselves were somewhat subdued. Red balls, pine cones, bunting and snow dot the 27 trees. Pots of red tulips decorate mantels. Some decorations are recycled from Christmases past. Miniature reproductions of presidents' homes from 2001 were dusted off from storage. The 2007 ornaments featuring national parks hang on a tree in the Oval Office. The gingerbread house was a minimalist masterpiece this year, with its exterior carved from 350 pounds of white chocolate, along with a few embellishments. In the Green Room, chunky silver eagles hung from the garland draping the mantel. The Bushes are scheduled to host 25 holiday receptions this month, while the kitchen churns out 250 coconut cakes and 22,000 holiday cookies.

The Bushes have brought new traditions to Christmas at the White House. When the attacks of Sept. 11 made no-reservation public tours a security risk, they introduced Barney Cam, a virtual tour of the holiday decorations by the Bushes' camera-loving Scottish terrier. (The 2008 Barney Cam will debut Dec. 15.) They started the tradition of hosting an annual Hanukkah party with kosher food, according to Sally McDonough, Laura Bush's press secretary. In 2003, they featured the Office of Management and Budget director and the Treasury secretary reading children's holiday books on whitehouse.gov.

The Bushes will spend Christmas at Camp David this year, as they have every year of George Bush's presidency and also the four years of his father's. The first lady said the entire Bush clan is expected to gather, including former first lady Barbara Bush, who was released from the hospital Tuesday after ulcer surgery. "It's our 12th year at Camp David, for Christmas," she said, displaying a bit of the Bush family pride. "So I'm sure we've got the record that will never be broken."

Next year, the Bushes won't have a pastry staff to bake cookies in the shapes of Barney, Miss Beazley and Kitty or an in-house flower studio to create a winter wonderland in their home. And when asked what she would be getting the president for Christmas, she said it would not be a year of abbondanza under the tree. "We will be moving to Dallas in January," said the first lady. "So I think that's where we'll spend our money -- right at real estate time."

And would she miss the tiers of red velvet cupcakes and the string quartets, the 49 spruce trees dusted with 800 pounds of artificial snow, and the solemn portrait of Lincoln looking over the buffet in the State Dining Room?

"It's the end of eight years and it's time to move on," said Mrs. Bush. She said she was looking forward to "the afterlife, as I've been calling it." She added, "Obviously, it won't be quite as elaborate. I might be doing the cooking myself."