It ’s 6:45 a.m. on Christmas morning time , 1902 , and Theodore Roosevelt ’s children — Alice , Ted , Kermit , Ethel , Archie , and Quentin — are pounding at the chairman ’s bedroom threshold . As per custom , their stockings , which TRnotesare “ all bulging out with rum angles and rotundities , ” are hanging above the hearth in their parents ’ room . Theodore and his wife , Edith , get up , remove the stockings , dismount a flame , and let the children in .
The kids eagerly unpack their stocking , and after breakfast , they open up self-aggrandising present in the program library . Each youngster ’s tidy sum of gifts is on a disjoined tabular array ; among the presents are an electric railroad for Quentin , a rifle and tantalise boots for Archie , and a spile of books for TR and Edith .
But the sidereal day holds an even bigger surprise than the goodies the Roosevelts open .
Sometime during the festivities , Archie turns to his father . “ Just look here for a mo , ” he says . “ I desire you to glance into this old closet . ”
He press a clit and start the wardrobe room access to reveal … aChristmas tree .
It ’s clear that 8 - year - honest-to-goodness Archie has been scheming some time . First , he ’d drafted a flight attendant to corrupt the tiny , 2 - foot - marvelous tree for 20 cents at the market and smuggle it into the White House . Then , with the aid of the carpenter , he ’d rigged it up in a wardrobe his mother rarely used . The building ’s linesman had helped him string it with lights , which can be turned on at the get-up-and-go of a clit . giving for each home member — and for Jack the Dog , Tom Quartz the Kitten , and Algonquin the Pony — decorate the branch .
As Roosevelt supporter Robert Lincoln O’Brien willwritea year later , “ All of the family were there , as was Quentin ’s nanny , but none appeared more astonied than Mr. Roosevelt himself at the sight of this diminutive Christmas tree . ”
You might be wonder : Why would a Christmas tree be so surprising ? Well , the Roosevelts did n’t typically have a Christmas tree , because — according to caption , anyway — Theodore Roosevelt , avid environmentalist , had banned them . The stories would have you trust that when Archie revealed his festal stunt , his begetter generate him a patent TR lecture . But what actually happened ?
From Mental Floss and iHeartRadio , this isHistory Vs . , a podcast about how your favorite diachronic build faced off against their great foes . I ’m your master of ceremonies , Erin McCarthy , and this week , in honor of the upcoming Christmas vacation , we ’re doing something a small different — we’re looking at the fact , and fable , behind a permeant Theodore Roosevelt Christmas tale . This instalment is TR vs. Christmas Trees .
Theodore Roosevelt be intimate Christmas , which hecalled“an social occasion of literally hallucinating delight . ” That love began in his childhood with the efforts of his parents , Thee and Mittie , who strove to make the holiday particular . Accordingto historiographer Kathleen Dalton , when TR and his sibling were fry , his mother “ gloried in piling the Christmas tabular array high-pitched with miniature for her children , and she love to watch their glee on Christmas morning . ”
TR recalled those daylight in his autobiography , writing about nabbing big stockings from the grown - ups , hanging them up the nighttime before Christmas , and open them the break of the day of on his parent ’ bed . After breakfast , Thee and Mittie would throw loose the door of the drawing way , where each child had his or her presents piled on their own table . They kept up the custom even when they weretraveling ; and when they spent the holiday in the city , Thee would often go to one of the charitable organizations he bear out for dinner — the Newsboys ’ Lodging - House , for instance — and bring his kids along .
In his autobiography , TR wrote that “ I never knew any one else have what seemed to me such attractive Christmases , and in the next generation I seek to multiply them exactly for my own children . ” And he did just that , reduplicate the stocking - breakfast - presents - on - the - table tradition year after yr .
Of one Christmas morning in 1890 , when TR was in D.C. serving on the Civil Service Commission , hewroteto his babe Bamie that “ the children savour it with the same wild transport we ourselves find twenty - five years ago . ” In 1903 , hewroteto his baby Corinne , “ I enquire whether there ever can fall in life a thrill of greater rapture and rapture than that which comes to one between the eld of say six and fourteen , when the library door is have open and you walk in to see all the natural endowment , like a materialized fairy land , arrayed on your special board ? ”
The family loved snow around Christmas — the kids would have “ all form of romps in the Baron Snow of Leicester , ” TRwroteone year , “ coasting , having snow - ball fights , and doing everything — in the primer coat back of the White House . ” When in Long Island , they ’d roll up up and take a sleigh drive to church on Christmas Eve . And there was plenty of physical activity , of track : The Roosevelts finished up their first vacation in the White House by trip the light fantastic toe a Virginia Reel in the East Room . Accordingto historian Edmund Morris , TR ’s wild dance movement made Edith laugh until she cried . On Christmas 1902 , TR and Ted take a three - hour - recollective horse ride , and the president played a plot of undivided stick with some friend that left him with “ a gibbousness over one eye and a swollen wrist . ” You know , typical Theodore Roosevelt material .
But though they had many beloved traditions surrounding the holiday , a Christmas tree was n’t one of them . And while that seems unearthly to us now , Christmas was celebrated much differently in the 19th hundred than it is today . In ablog postfor the Theodore Roosevelt Center internet site , Keri Youngstrand notes that , back then , “ Christmas was a quiet spiritual vacation marked by individual family tradition convey from the old world . ”
As Jamie Lewiswritesat The Forest Society ’s history blog , up until the tardy 1840s , many Americans thought Christmas trees were pagan symbol , so they were n’t pervasive in homes . The same concord truthful for the Executive Mansion : Christmas trees would n’t become an integral part of the holiday celebration there until the 1920s .
But what make the Roosevelt case somewhat unusual was that , in the 19th century , Americans oftendidhave a tree diagram if the menage had unseasoned children . Lewis writes that grownup would put presents under or on the tree for the kids . Grover Cleveland and Benjamin Harrison both had Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree in the White House .
At home in Oyster Bay , the Rooseveltsprovideda Christmas Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree — which TR rationalize down himself , in the Sir Henry Wood of Sagamore Hill , with the help of an employee — to Cove Neck elementary shoal , where it was decorated by a teacher . Then , Roosevelt acted as Santa Claus : harmonize to a 1920 clause in theNew - York Tribune , when the Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree was unveil , TR was “ on hand early … his arms full with the store of mysterious packages and bundles and his eyes critically survey the last min decorations . … The Colonel , shine from spike to capitulum , announced that he had been delegated by Saint Nick to act as his emissary , and began reading from the packages which crowd the foot of the tree diagram the epithet of the various golden recipients . ”
He even brought them his favorite severe candy from when he was a kid . In thewordsof his ally Jacob Riis , “ Mr. Roosevelt made a skillful Santa Claus . ”
But still , there was no tree at home base .
We ’ll be right back .
The fact that the Roosevelts , with a house full of young child , didn’thave a tree diagram in the White House made home news basically every year .
In 1901,The New York Daily Tribunenoted that “ follow an established usance in the Roosevelt family , there will be no Christmas tree this year at the White House . ” That same year , The Washington Timessaidthat White House attendant were disappointed about the want of tree , spell that , “ They had suppose that , with so many children , the Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree would be essential . ” The next year , theNew York Sunreportedthe same thing — no tree!—although , thanks to Archie ’s surprisal , they would be wrong . In 1903 , Georgia’sThe Brunswick Dailysaidthat “ following the customs of last yr it has been determine to have no Christmas tree at the White House , ” and in 1904 — well , you get the idea .
After Archie went varlet , though , Lewis write that the papers wondered , each holiday season for the rest of TR ’s presidency , “ what will come about and if Archie will pull a libertine one . ”
There was much speculation as to why the Roosevelts went treeless on Christmas . The Washington Timesreported that the Roosevelt kids did n’t evenliketrees , and that TR preferred to celebrate according to the customs of Holland . ( The Dutch version of Santa , orSinterklaas , was big onleaving gifts in footgear . )
South Carolina’sGreenville Newswrote in 1904 that Santa would visit the White House as he did other plate in the U.S. , but he would not “ provide a Christmas tree , and the president and his married woman do not bother about providing one . Whether they think Santa Claus would not like for them to do something he had failed to do can not be officially stated . ”
But as presently as 1903 , another explanation had emerged : That TR oppose Christmas trees because of environmental concerns . As O’Brien wrote inLadies ’ Home Journal , “ The President ’s sexual love for the hold up things of the forest in their own natural context is so great , it has been suggest , that he prefers not to encourage the wanton slaughter of small tree . ”
By December 1909 , it was beingreportedas fact in the press . Gifford Pinchot , Chief of the Division of Forestry , was throw into the tale for upright measuring rod . Hesupposedly“sided with Santa Claus and showed how Christmas Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree cutting did the forests good in many places . ”
It ’s true that TR was no rooter of destructive lumbering practice — after all , this is the guy rope whocreatedthe U.S. Forest Service and established 150 interior forests . In 1905 , he give a speech title “ The Forest in the Life of a Nation ” in which he noted that thing like fire and destructive lumbering praxis , combine with legitimate lumbering , “ are destroying our forest resources far more rapidly than they are being replaced , ” and that if there was nothing done to curb the destruction of forests , a timber famine would be inevitable . “ think of , ” he tot up , “ that you could prevent such a timber famine occurring by wise action taken in sentence , but once the famine occurs there is no possible means of festinate the growth of the tree necessary to take over it . ”
The guyclearlyloved trees . And national thought at the time was emphatically anti - Christmas tree . An 1899 newspaper column suggested that an inventor make a telegram Christmas tree diagram “ Warranted to bear a gift for every appendage of the folk and to be absolutely fireproof . As conducting wire is undestroyable , a large category of child could be fetch up on one Christmas tree diagram and much timber would be saved . ”
According to Lewis , President McKinley begin letters asking him to give up a Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree — the writerscalledcutting down trees for Christmas “ arboreal infanticide . ” And by the time TR became president , opponent to the exercise had give its tiptop , with the public arguing against trend trees for reasons ranging from destructive harvesting practices to wastefulness . One composition called the Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree “ an idiotic fad ” that were resulting in “ the woods … being stripped . ”
In his piece forLadies ’ Home Journal , O’Brien observe that if TR disapproved of the pattern on preservation soil , “ he has not so inform his tight friend . ”
Lewis writes that Theodore Roosevelt never come out specifically against harvestingChristmas trees , and when he speak with author Brigit Katz for aMental Floss pieceon this subject area , Lewis was emphatic : “ Ultimately , [ Roosevelt ] had no Bachelor of Arts in Nursing on Christmas trees , ” he told Katz .
As forwhythe insistency was so interested in the Roosevelts ’ want of Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree , Lewis had an explanation for us . He enounce that not only were the Roosevelts “ a dynamic , fascinating family that the press enjoy covering , ” but that the papers might have been wanting for content as the holiday approached . Lewis told Katz that “ Congress would have adjourned week before . So [ the media is ] do-or-die for transcript , and here we have this enthralling class . I think some of the myth and caption is born out of ennui , honestly . ”
Still , despite the deficiency of grounds , TR ’s supposed posture on Christmas tree diagram , and the storey about Pinchot stepping in to set him straight , are still reported as fact today . Theodore Roosevelt ’s ban on Christmas trees even made it onto anepisodeofDrunk History .
The fact of the thing is , we may never really acknowledge why the Roosevelts did n’t have a tree . Perhaps it ’s because Bamie had one at her house , and the Roosevelts were there most Christmases . Or perhaps , as O’Brien wrote , it was because that the Roosevelts favored ease ; the White House was n’t decorated garishly for the time of year , either . Or maybe , as theBaltimore Sunposited in December 1901 , with so many children , and so many visitor , there was n’t room for one — and that Bamie ’s tree would just have to suffice .
Or , as Lewis told Atlas Obscura , it could be that Edith put the kibosh on a tree . After all the Roosevelts had six fry and a veritable menagerie of pets — which include , at one time or another , opossum , wing squirrels and kangaroo blabber , a fuzz named Maude , a badger diagnose Josiah , a hyena named Bill , a one - legged cock , Republic of Guinea pig with names like Father O’Grady and Fighting Bob Evans , and , of course , Tom Quartz the kitten , Algonquin the pony , and Jack the dog-iron , among many , many others — to worry about .
But the most likely explanation seems to be that Roosevelt be intimate the Christmas tradition of his puerility , and those tradition did n’t let in a tree . So there was no tree — at least not until 1902 .
What we do experience is that Archie ’s antics that year look to have been met with delight , not a speech , from the Chief Executive . And they may even have set out a new Roosevelt family custom : In 1906 , TRwroteto Corinne that Archie and Quentin had created “ a variant on what is otherwise a strictly inherit form of our celebration , for they fix up ( or at least Archie fix up ) a special Christmas Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree in Archie ’s way . ”
While TR and Edith were admiring Archie ’s Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree , two kids snuck out of the room to coif up “ a minor lighted Christmas Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree ” in their parent ’ room . It had , TR wrote , “ two huge stockings for Edith and myself . ” The next class , hewroteto Bamie that “ there was a Christmas Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree of Archie ’s . ”
In his Forest Society blog , Lewis notes that the casualness of TR ’s comment may indicate that by this tip , a Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree was really expected — and perhaps that fact is what led the kids to provide a Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree for their parent in 1906 . They wanted to surprise TR once again .
Today , Archie ’s exploits hold up on in Gary Hines ’s tyke ’s Holy Scripture , A Christmas Tree in the White House .
And if this episode has made you wonder whether you should go with a real tree diagram on Christmas , it ’s worth mark that , at least these days , Christmas Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree are crops grown on farm . agree toThe New York Times , it takesunder a decadefor a tree to reach 5 or 6 feet , and it ’s replaced with a unexampled tree when a farmer cut it down . Christmas tree husbandry practice are sustainable , and the trees do a batch for the environment before they ’re slew down . And they have the potential to do more after , too , if you compost them or donate them to a menagerie , where they can be used as enrichment toy or collation for beast .
We ’ll be back next hebdomad with a veritable episode ofHistory Vs . We hope you have a corking holiday !
CREDITS
History Vs . is hosted by me , Erin McCarthy . This instalment was written by me , with fact checking by Austin Thompson .
The Executive Producers are Erin McCarthy , Julie Douglas , and Tyler Klang .
The Supervising Producer is Dylan Fagan .
The show is edit by Dylan Fagan and Lowell Brillante .
To see more about this sequence , and Theodore Roosevelt , check out our website atmentalfloss.com/historyvs .
History Vs . Is a production of iHeart Radio and Mental Floss .
