The holiday season is a special time – even at the White House during threatening moments. Here are two Christmas stories.
On Christmas Eve in 1929, seven weeks after the stock market crashed and the nation slipped into the Great Depression, President Herbert Hoover and first lady Lou Henry Hoover threw a holiday party for White House staff and children. The gathering was off to a great start with a festive dinner, treats, and gifts. The Marine Band played Christmas songs. At about 8 p.m., a White House messenger smelled smoke. Along with a police officer and Secret Service agent, the messenger ran upstairs to the attic above the president’s office to find the problem’s source. The heat was intense and flames lapped stored papers. “The whole loft is burning up,” shouted the agent. They grabbed fire extinguishers, but that didn’t work. They called the fire department and the White House chief usher told the president that the “executive office is on fire.” The first lady hurriedly evacuated guests to a safe part of the building.
Hoover and White House personnel rushed to the Oval Office. They entered through a window, pulled out desk drawers, and removed steel file cabinets. They also took the presidential chair and flag and covered the mahogany desk, made for Theodore Roosevelt, with a waterproof canvas. One hundred and thirty firefighters were soon on scene, braving icy conditions to tame the four-alarm blaze. They broke through a skylight and pushed holes into the roof to let smoke out. One firefighter was scorched by a backdraft and others were hospitalized. The president, wearing a dark overcoat and black hat, went outside where he puffed a cigar and watched the commotion. Serious damage was done to executive offices and charred debris was heaped on the ground.
The 1929 Christmas Eve fire foreshadowed the remainder of Hoover’s presidency, marked by unrelenting disaster.
A dozen years later came history’s most extraordinary White House Christmas. As a somber President Franklin Roosevelt was asking Congress to declare war on Japan after the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill decided to invite himself to Washington. The cigar-chomping Churchill was anxious to make plans with FDR for a widening war effort. Though Roosevelt feared for Churchill’s safety crossing the U-boat-filled Atlantic, he said he’d be “delighted” to welcome the prime minister. The crafty president waited until the last minute to tell first lady Eleanor Roosevelt about the visit; anticipating her reticence, he implied it would last only a few days.
Churchill flew into Washington three nights before Christmas. He immediately turned a second-floor White House bedroom into a busy headquarters and decorated another room with large maps to track the war effort. Messengers ran documents back and forth.
At that time, Germany and Italy dominated Europe from the English Channel to the Black Sea. Japan was moving through the Philippines and British Malaya, about to force Hong Kong’s surrender. The Allies needed a plan — and quick. During his three-week stay, Churchill roamed the White House in a silk sleeping gown. He ordered “a tumbler of sherry” in his room before breakfast and scotch, soda, and French champagne at lunch. He also requested a 90-year-old brandy before he went to bed at night.
Roosevelt and Churchill lunched daily, discussing strategy. Late-night sessions exhausted the president and irritated first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, but the bond they created was a turning point in the war. On Christmas Eve, Churchill joined Roosevelt at the White House tree lighting. “Let the children have their night of fun and laughter,” the prime minister told the crowd. “Let us share to the full in their unstinted pleasure before we turn again to the stern tasks in the year that lies before us.” After Churchill returned to London, Roosevelt sent him a message that read, “It is fun to be in the same decade with you.”
Moral of this story: Even in tough times, we can do serious things and still have fun. Happy holidays to all.
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Ron Faucheux is a nonpartisan political analyst. He publishes LunchtimePolitics.com, a nationwide newsletter on polls and public opinion. He’s the author of Running for Office.
