During the holidays, the lady of the house usually chooses the motif and design for the Christmas decorations in her home. The First Lady Michelle Obama also does the same thing except she hires an entire team (or teams!) to decorate the White House.
Michelle reportedly hand picked four designers and one event planner to dress up the first family's home in preparation for Christmas. According to Vogue, Carolina Herrera, Humberto Leon, Carol Lim and Duro Olowu were the ones assigned to work on one room each. Bran Rafanelli, an events coordinator who has worked on several state dinners and official events, was chosen to make sure the rest of the interiors in the White House are well coordinated. Almost 200 people worked for 5 days decorating the place, and the Obamas are very much 'merry' because of its result.
On Wednesday, Michelle and the rest of the first family unveiled the magnificent Christmas design of the White House by welcoming military families and children into their home. One of the highlights of the decorations is the traditional handcrafted gingerbread house which is made of dark chocolate instead of the usual white, and weighs about 500 pounds. A magical collection of hanging snowflakes along the halls added to the home's classy holiday look. The main Christmas tree this year is 18 and a half feet tall, with red white and blue ornaments, dedicated to military families which has been the custom throughout Barrack's years as the President. Aside from this, there are a total of 61 Christmas trees all over the residence and at least 70,000 ornaments and fairy lights. 56 snow men were also placed outside the East Colonnade, each symbolizing the 56 states of U.S.
The first lady emphasized the importance of welcoming the military families as part of their holiday tradition. Mrs. Obama says, "We do this because of everything that you all do every day to make our country great."