geeky
The tooting of a horn in a series of more or less musical notes was the signal for the commencement of the Christmas celebration at the White House this morning shortly after 10 o'clock. When Mrs. Dimmick blew this juvenile instrument, faces came smiling from every door all around her in the corridor upstairs, and soon all the members of the presidential family had assembled in a laughing procession.
Mary's (Lodge McKee) gifts had a full set of baby doll furniture, with baby doll, lady dolls and boy dolls, a piano, a kitchen outfit and a quantity of other feminine necessities in the world of babydom, while Benjamin (Baby McKee) had a steam engine, a couple of train cars, a full suit of armor, books, pictures, and all manner of things to tickle a boyish fancy.
Benjamin Harrison was the first President to have a decorated Christmas tree in the White House. Today Harrison House is decorated to reflect the Harrison's love of the Christmas season. During the holiday season the house is decorated to represent a gala Victorian Christmas house. Outside, the house is decorated with garlands of greenery and bows on the wrap-around porch. Upon entering the house, guests will feel drawn back in time to a 19th century Christmas. The front parlor is decorated with a large tree similar to one Benjamin Harrison decorated in 1889 in the White House. Authentic decorations such as wooden soldiers, cotton batting ornaments, hand-blown glass figures, candles and original Harrison tinsel adorn the tree. Victorian toys, many of them Harrison originals, are displayed under the tree as the children might have found them on Christmas morning. Inside Harrison House is an "Old Father Christmas," inspired from an 1868 Ladies Godey's Magazine. It is made from pine cones, moss, sheep's wool and fur.