The annual ornament from 2008, designed to honor the administration of twenty-third President Benjamin Harrison, takes the shape of a Victorian Christmas tree. Harrison, who was inaugurated precisely one hundred years after George Washington, was the first to begin the tradition of placing a decorated tree in the White House during Yuletide. The gold-finished brass token depicts garland and baubles upon the bough, as well as treats and toys beneath for Harrison’s grandchildren. “We shall have an old-fashioned Christmas tree for the grandchildren upstairs,” the President said, “and I shall be their Santa Claus myself.”
