Twitter welcomes Jill Biden’s Christmas decorations after years of Melania Trump’s ‘murder trees’

Twitter users hailed the end of Melania Trump’s ‘dark, dystopian’ Christmas decorations, which some called ‘nightmare fuel’

Nathan Place
New York
Monday 29 November 2021 23:18 GMT
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First Lady Jill Biden receives official White House Christmas tree

Jill Biden has unveiled her White House’s Christmas decorations, and Twitter users are already hailing them as a welcome change from her predecessor’s.

In a tweet, the first lady posted pictures of the new decor, which includes American flag-themed stockings, an arch of red gift boxes, and an enormous Christmas tree decorated with white doves.

Each room, Dr Biden explained, represents a different spiritual “gift” from the past year.

“Inspired by the acts of kindness and experiences that lifted our spirits this year,” she wrote, “decorated rooms in the White House reflect the Gifts from the Heart that unite us all: faith, family, friendship, the arts, learning, nature, gratitude, service, community, peace, and unity.”

Twitter users quickly noticed the difference.

“What, no murder trees?” one asked, attaching a photo of Melania Trump’s infamous red Christmas trees.

Ms Trump took an unusual approach to Christmas, decorating the White House with harsh, modernist imagery instead of the typical wreaths and ribbons. In 2017, she installed a row of bare, white branch clusters, lit from the bottom so they cast dark shadows on the ceiling.

“Why do the White House Christmas decorations look like Voldemort is about to come back?” one spooked journalist asked at the time.

In 2018, Ms Trump followed those up with her furry red trees, which one Twitter user referred to as “nightmare fuel”. Others compared the imagery to the dystopian TV series The Handmaid’s Tale or the horror movie The Shining.

To make matters worse, in 2020 a secret audio recording emerged of Ms Trump grumbling about her obligation to plan the decorations.

“Give me a f***ing break,” she groused. “I’m working like a – my a** off at Christmas stuff that, you know, who gives a f*** about Christmas stuff and decorations?”

Dr Biden seems to have taken a different approach. In her first holiday season as first lady, Ms Trump’s successor has brought back the traditional red, white, and green pageantry of cosy rooms and shiny ornaments that typified previous White House Christmases.

But not everyone is impressed.

“I don’t want to hear another negative thing about Melania’s elegant Christmas decorations, given the tacky Christmas decorations by Jill Biden revealed today,” one critic tweeted.

Others welcomed the new decorations as a return to normalcy.

“After four years, thanks to First Lady Jill Biden, a normal, happy Christmas returns to the White House,” former NBC executive Mike Sington tweeted. “It’s the end of Melania Trump’s dark, dystopian Christmases of ‘I’m working my a** off on Christmas stuff. Who gives a f*** about Christmas?’”

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