You might still have a few Halloween decorations hanging around but it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas around the White House.
The White House Historical Association has released the official 2021 White House Christmas ornament, with a special bauble that commemorates President Lyndon B. Johnson and his commitment to civil rights.
The front of the ornament features a painting of the 1967 Blue Room Christmas tree by artist Robert H. Laessig commissioned by then-first lady Lady Bird Johnson for the first family’s Christmas cards. Laessig was a designer for the American Greetings company.
The back of the ornament features an engraving of a quote by Johnson given in a joint address to Congress in 1965 pushing for a voting rights bill. The address followed the violent response by police and counterprotesters on activists marching for civil rights in Selma, Alabama.
The quote on the ornament reads: “Our mission is at once the oldest and the most basic of this country: to right wrong, to do justice, to serve man,”
Surrounding the quote are Texas bluebonnets, in homage to Mrs. Johnson’s beautification efforts and a nod to the Johnsons’ home state.
The ornament can be purchased online for $24.95.
The White House Historical Association has released a Christmas ornament every year since 1981.
Each ornament honors either an individual president or a significant White House anniversary, such as the first lighting of the White House Christmas tree and the first electric Christmas lights.
You can see photos of every White House Christmas ornament going back to 1981 on the White House Historical Association’s website.
The association was founded by first lady Jacqueline Kennedy in 1961.
