Dear Patriots,

Usually in AMERICA: The Blog I harp on and on about politics but not this week.

This week is special. Growing up, my family never put up a Christmas tree nor exchanged presents on Christmas Morning, but we always remembered the Reason for the Season, listened to King College's live broadcast of the Festival of the Nine Lessons and Carols and enjoyed Dickensian Jollity together.

So, unless the Democrats do something  exceptionally stupid this week (I mean more stupid than their usual stupid), this week AMERICA: The Blog will be revisiting Christmases in the the Trump White House  (aka Camelot) through pictures and videos.

Welcome to Christmas 2017, the first Christmas in a long time when America was put first and Jesus' birth unabashedly acknowledged as the Reason for the Season.

The first Christmas Tree to grace the White House dates from 1889 when it was decorated with candles for President Harrison's grandchildren. Five years later, President Cleveland's tree was adorned with electric lights. In fact, 2021 marks exactly 130 years since the White House was wired for that newfangled thing: electricity.

During FDR's time as President, candles again adorned the tree but it was Jackie Kennedy who introduced the concept of having a different theme each year for the White House Christmas Trees' decorations.

As First Lady in 2017, Melania Trump chose the very Trumpish theme of "Time-Honored Traditions."

Not only was the East Wing Christmas tree adorned with gold stars to honor our Armed Forces, especially Gold Star families, but Trump spent his Christmas Eve at Mar-a-Lago talking directly with our troops.

In addition to Melania's fifty-three Christmas Trees (and 40+ topiaries), each year the White House displays a Christmas crèche carved in Naples sometime in the 1700s in the East Room. Originally it belonged to Charles and Jayne Engelhard who donated it to the White House in 1967.

This beautiful crèche reminds me of our local midwife, Rebekah Knapp, who passed away in a car crash last July. Apparently, she loved and collected manger scenes. After she passed away, word went around that if you wanted a manger scene, please contact the Knapp family. Rebekah's manger scenes runneth over and they didn't know what to do with them all!

While some Conservative (Fake News) sites claimed the Obamas removed the crèche, that was untrue. This year, other Conservative sites implied the Fake Bidens somehow modified the crèche to make it more woke or inclusive, but that is also untrue and underscores the need for Conservative journalists to put accuracy above agenda and innuendo.

Of course, no Christmas is complete without a gingerbread house. In 2017, the White House's gingerbread house weighed 200  pounds and even the wreaths were edible.

In recent years, I've begun to enjoy the tradition of Christmas cards but with a twist: Michael and I send postcards. Envelopes are way too tedious for my...oh look! a squirrel!

If you're on my list (or want to be!) be prepared for some pretty random leftover postcards this year. My Amazon order of adorable Christmas postcards is still en route from New Zealand. Oops! ETA: January 2022.

Of course, the Trumps never have that problem. Their 2017 official Christmas card was simple, tasteful, classy and on time, unlike mine. LOL

It's always such fun when the National Christmas tree is lit. The Trump White House YouTube channel (archived) offers three versions of this video: short, long and really long. Here are all three for your viewing enjoyment.

But all this is just beautiful, empty decoration and tradition if you don't know the Reason for the Season. President Trump has never been shy to talk about God and the birth of his Son, Jesus Christ, as President and indeed as a younger man in old interviews. His Christmas message in 2017 was no exception.

Two thousand seventeen was the first of four beautiful Christmases in Trump's Camelot. Tasteful, gorgeous and devout.

Tomorrow (God willing!) we'll walk down Memory Lane together and remember the Trumps' 2018 White House Christmas. Together we'll remember how profound, beautiful and peaceful life can be with President Trump at the helm of our Ship of State.