Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1955-12-25
BY ISABELLE SHELTON

Eisenhower has been President.
the family is spending the
Yule holiday at the executive
mansion. Former President
and Mrs. Truman spent only
one Christmas there out of the
seven during which he was the
Chief Executive.
The Trumans' one White
House Christmas was in 1882
his last year as President
and was a very subdued affair,
because Mrs. Truman's mother,
who had long made her home
with the Trumans, had died
Just a few weeks before.
Hence, it has been 10 years
since boistrous young presi-
Dental grandchildren, such as
the Eisenhowers' three-David,
Z; Barbara Anne, 6, and Susan,
8, have romped in the man.
sion's hallowed halls at Christ
mastime. Baby Mary Jean.
born to the Eisenhower's son
John and daughter-in-law
Barbara last Wednesday. is
spending the day at Walter
Reed Hospital.
There always was a full
complement of grandchildren
and much boistrous merriment
during the long reign of Mr..
Truman's predecessor, Frank
lin D. Roosevelt.
Three-Day Production
The big, friendly Roosevelt
clan made a three-day pro-
duction out of Christmas. The
events, which started two days
ahead of time, included a par
ty for the White House office
staff, another for the do
nestle staff-butlers, footmen,
cooks, etc, with their families;
a Christmas dance for the
young set, and family gather
ings on both Christmas Eve
and Christmas Day.
Every one at each of the
parties received a personal
gift from the President and his
wife. Mrs. Roosevelt began
collecting the gifts the pre-
ceding January each year, as
she pursued her stored travels
across the nation. She shops
as she runs" one chronicler
noted at the time-pottery
from a New England wayside
stand. neckties from an or
phanage benefit sale. baskets
from a school for the blind.
furniture from a mountaineer
handicraft shop.
Each Christmas Eve. the
entire Roosevelt family, from
F. D. RS mother to the new
est grandchild. gathered
around the big Christmas
tree in the East Room, while
the President read Dickens
Christmas Carol aloud. Then
the whole family, including
the adults. filed upstairs to
the Presidents bedroom,
where each hung his stock
ing on the mantel.
Mr.. Roosevelt was not by
nature an early riser, but he
had no alternative on Christ
mas. The grandchildren des-
cended upon his room at dawn,
and, to quote an earlier &C
count, from that moment I'M
til shutdown there (was) prob
ably more pandemonium per
square inch in the White
House than in all the hetero-
geneous, farf1ung agencies of
the New Deal put together"
High Jinks The Order
High-spirited high jinks also
were the order of the day when
the earlier Roosevelt tribe,
headed by Theodore Roosevelt,
were installed in the White
House.
One famous story from the
Teddy Roosevelt era concerns
the time the President stood
on the north portico roaring
with laughter, as he watched
his high-Spirited sons, hatchets
in hand. chase a turkey across
the White House lawn. A re-
porter happened by and wrote
a story on the event, which
brought down upon the Presi-
dents head the wrath of ami
NAL lovers and protective So
cietieS.
There also was the occasion
when the Roosevelt boys, Ker-
nit, Archie and Quentin,
sneaked a pony upstairs, in the
White House, and another oc-
casion when Archie and Quen-
tin struggled in a Christmas
tree and trimmed it in Archie's
room.
Their father, an ardent con-
servationist. h a d banned
Christmas trees in the man
sion, but he subsequently was
persuaded by his conservation
chief, Clifford Pinchot, that
supervised cutting did not
menace future forests.
Young Tad Lincoln, who once
took a goat to bed with him
in the White House, possessed
the nearest thing to Roose-
veltian high spirits in the
earlier White House years.
One Christmas day Tad,
who was soon to follow his
father in death, showed up at
the door of the White House
kitchen with a group of be-
draggled and very hungry
street urchins in tow, asking
that they all be fed. The out
ragged cook shooed the motley
crew away. but Tad appealed
to his father, and President
Lincoln ordered that all be fed
handsomely.
Herbert Hoover tried MIGHT.