Iowa state bystander. [volume] (Des Moines, Iowa) 1894-1916, 1915-12-17
IN THE WHITE HOUSE.
How Presidents Of Past Enjoyed
Christmas Holidays.
No Celebration by John Quincy Adams
Because He Regarded Religious
Festival as a Foolish
Extravaganza.

~ president OF the United states
who did not celebrate Christmas
(because he regarded it as q foolish
extravaganza was John Quincy Ad-
ans, the most economical man
known in public life"
Mrs. John Adams, the wife of the
second president of the United States,
had most discouraging time trying
to make merry in the White House
during the Christmas holidays. (She
was the first wife of president to
celebrate Christmas in the executive
mansion in Washington, for the presi-
dent and Mrs. Washington were al
ways at Mount Vernon for the holi-
days. She had no dominating sense
uf economy, but it was the White
House itself that was shabby, and a
Christmas reception given to the mem
bers of congress by the president
proved. from her point Of view, to be
a CHASTITY failure.
President Jefferson was a widower
with four daughters, and during his
second administration Martha, the eld-
est, was the head Of her fathers
household, and made Christmas the
happy and festive occasion it was de-
signed to be from that time when the
star stood still above the manager in
Bethlehem.
There were trees, and decorations,
and all sorts Of entertainments for the
children of the official families, as we'll
as gifts for the poor of the capital.
Although the Madisons did not
spend all of their Christmases in the
White House, on account of the little
historical interruption by the British,
when they occupied other quarters for
a time, the brilliant Dolly managed
record for holiday hospitality and
merrymaking that has never been sur
passed.
When Andrew Jackson came to tho
White House he was bowed and bro
ken by the death of his wife and de-
pressed by political animosities. He
had neither heart nor the slightest In.
clination for holiday celebrations, yet
he pulled himself together at Christ
mas time, and saw to it that the day
meant something happy to those in
the White House.
In the meantime the Monroe admin.
istration was marked by nothing in
the way of holiday celebrations be-
! yond what was conventionally pre-
scribed, and after President Jacksons
efforts at keeping the spirit of Christ.
mas in spite of his own personal sor-
rows, President Harrison did not live
to see Christmas in the White
House.
Mrs. Tyler lived to celebrate only
one Christmas in the White House.
After his second marriage the Tyler
administration was noted for its bril-.
liant entertainments. Whether it was
Christmas or any other time of the
year, Inequalities were dispensed in
the old Virginia style, and there was
no stint of merrymaking at the White
House.
The Polk administration reverted to
the grim and practical idea Of John
Quincy Adams. Perhaps it was not
economy that changed the Christmas
celebration at the White House; it is
difficult to define the reason why Pres
ident Polk did not make the holidays
a festive event in the executive man.
sion; 1t may have been the tempera-
ment of the chief executive; perhaps
1t was because Mrs. Polk did not be-
lieve in the gay and festive way of
celebrating the holidays, as. according
to intimate history, she did not.
President Zachary Taylor, brilliant
figure in military history, who had no
chance whatever in the social history
of the White House, because he died
in little more than year after he
had taken his seat as president of
the United States, and spent only one
Christmas in the White House, be-
queathed his administration to the
Fillmores, people pitiably distin-
guished by sorrow and in no way
adapted to the social obligations of
the great national responsibility Of
sustaining the political and social OBJ
legations of the White House.
Shortly after becoming president,
someone writes of President Fillmore,
"his wife died, and year later
daughter, an only child, passed to the
great eternity