My Experience as a White House Volunteer Christmas Decorator
I recently had the coolest experience as a White House Volunteer Christmas Decorator! The whole experience was so amazing that I decided it was too important not to write a blog post covering the entire four days. You can also check out my Instagram where I saved some highlights along with a reel.
This post will be photo-heavy but I hope you enjoy it! Last night, there was an HGTV special that aired live and documented the the decorating process. It was so cool to watch since I got to see the Property Brothers filming while we were decorating. They may have included a couple of small clips of me decorating or throwing ornaments to Jonathon Scott.
Did you know that anyone can apply to be a volunteer as a White House decorator? There were over 1000 applicants this year and 300 volunteers were chosen from all over the United States.
I was also invited by Pinterest along with 11 other content creators to decorate the White House and then bring some of that inspiration back home to create similar projects. We hoped to inspire the American people to bring some of the magic of the White House to their own homes this season. I’ve shared a couple of projects on the blog showing you how to create cluster ornaments and DIY bookpage art but you can also find the rest of the content we created for Pinterest here.
Can you believe that the White House is mostly decorated with DIY crafts and projects? Most of the projects are recycled and repurposed year after year. There is a group leader in charge of certain rooms and then are assigned a bunch of volunteers to help carry out the specific vision. This year, Dr Jill Biden and her team planned the Christmas decorations immediately after the Easter Egg Roll.
The First Lady presented this year’s theme, “Magic, Wonder and Joy” to inspire us to look at this festive season through the eyes of a child. The White House expects to have 100,000 visitors this holiday season. If you are one of those visitors, please let me know! I wish my family could’ve seen the decorations in person.
As a volunteer, you are assigned to be in a group with a team leader. The team leader is in charge of the main theme and direction of the projects for the room. I was in Team Comet with our team leader Emily Barton. She is a super-talented installation designer. Emily and her team came with a bunch of large installations already built. Then, she delegated tasks to the volunteers to create all the DIY projects like paint and cutting numbers, and boxes, spray paint, building out some of the designs, creating ornaments, etc. There was a lot to do and we only had 3 full days to do it!
Emily was in charge of the library and the East Room, the largest room in the White House. I worked in the East Room which was Advent Calender themed. She kindly entrusted me to be in charge of the two large trees in the East Room and make sure they were decorated with all the cool ornaments that the rest of the group was in charge of preparing.
We were not allowed to bring in our phones during our volunteer days but as part of the Pinterest group, we had access to go and take some footage on the second night. This was such a treat! Here you can see the ram board still on the floors to protect the surfaces and we still had a lot of work left to do the next day. Charlotte and I worked on creating the large tree skirts on the first day and they were messy! We used ram board, large sheets of paper crumbled up to add some depth, joint compound, and topped it off with fake snow. I may or may not have gotten a few glue gun burns after that particular project. Let’s just say I had to take a bunch of my clothes to the dry cleaners after this experience! But so worth the mess and burns!
Being an immigrant from South Korea, this project and experience is one that I will always cherish. It was such an amazing experience coming together with other Americans with the joy of creating beauty and magic in the White House. I got to make so many new friends and have this amazing shared experience together. Btw, this was my very first time being inside the White House too!
Here’s the finished tree during Monday’s reception! I can’t tell you how massive this tree was. I had someone help me decorate the upper half using scaffolding. Many volunteers helped string hundreds of ornaments to deck these two Advent trees. Every pair of hands was crucial in bringing this together.
One of my favorite trees is this large one in the East Wing that looks like it’s going through the roof! How creative is this?
We also got to see it outside lit up at night and it was breathtaking.
Do you see magic, wonder, and joy here? It truly is a feast for the eyes! I can’t believe how much all of this was DIY. You would see tables of volunteers hard at work, meticulously painting and crafting away all the details for each and every project.
Charlotte, Emily, and I were asked to do a very last-minute project to make tree skirts for the two large trees in the Grand Foyer. We may have used a few bed sheets, padding, and paper!
This was a large than life White House Advent Calendar installation. I loved seeing it come together and watching my friends, The Crafty Lumberjacks hard at work with Emily and her husband, Bryn.
Check out the Advent Calendar mantels. This is also the room where the state funeral for President JFK was held. It holds a lot of history. James Hoban and George Washington designed the East Room to be a “Public Audience Room.” It is traditionally used for large gatherings.
Pictures truly do it no justice.
On the last day, the First Lady held a reception to unveil the holiday decor and thanked the volunteers who helped decorate the White House. We all had the privilege to walk around the rooms, take photos, and even take a picture with Dr Biden herself! She also invited National Guard families to be the first public members to experience the unveiling.
I’m so happy with how these trees turned out with Emily’s vision!
Here are some other photos I took of the other spaces.
Be sure to follow along with my friends! I so enjoyed working with this amazing crew and we have been group texting each other daily after this unique experience.
Marite- Marite Does It, Andrew and Dennis- Crafty Lumberjacks, Anita- Anita Yokota, Vanessa-First Gen House, Charlotte- At Charlotte’s House, Lauren- Hand Makes Home, Beth- The Kingston Home, Sarah- Ugly Duckling DIY, Kelly- KellMarcel, Brittany- The House That Lars Built
And of course, I had to share the photo we took with The First Lady. I’m forever grateful for this opportunity and will remember it always.
As always, thanks for being here! I’m seriously so grateful for such special opportunities that continue to surprise me. I hope you enjoyed the blog post and that you have the most amazing Christmas and Happy Holidays. I will share another DIY project this week on the blog. I know! 3 blog posts in one month? Who am I? 😉
You can also check out the DIY cluster ornament post along with a DIY holiday bookpage art that was inspired by the projects done in the White House.
xoxo,
Let all that you do be done in Love. 1 Corinthians 16:14
What an incredible experience. It must have been awesome for you to participate and to meet other decorators from around the country. Great job. I loved looking at the incredible pictures. Was there a nativity scene? I didn’t see a picture of it, so I’m just wondering.
Thank you, Mary Ann!! It was truly an honor for me. Yes! The East Room, the largest room in the White House, features a Neapolitan crèche. The crèche has been displayed every year since 1967 and includes over 40 figurines, most of which date back to the 18th century. You can see it on the HGTV special that was aired last night.
I thought that was you.
Great experience! Hope you had fun!
Thank you so much, Bridget! It was amazing!