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For Vice President Joe Biden and Dr. Jill Biden, deciding the theme of this year’s holiday decorations at One Observatory Circle was simple; gratitude was the obvious choice. "Hosting at the Vice President’s Residence over the past eight years has been the honor of a lifetime," Dr. Biden told AD. "We hope that all of our guests—from local children and foreign leaders, to military families and wounded warriors—have felt the magic, comfort, and camaraderie of this special home.” Their last Christmas as second couple seemed like the perfect moment to thank everyone, from our country’s military heroes to those who made the VP’s official residence in Washington, D.C., feel like home for eight years.
That includes AD100 designer Victoria Hagan, who decorated the 1893 Victorian for the Bidens in 2008. “The first thing that struck me was the warmth and dignity that emanated from them both,” she says. “When we talked, they spoke about their grandchildren’s sleepovers as well as entertaining visiting dignitaries. This was a family home as much as an official residence, and I tried to capture that spirit in everything we did.”
A sense of family and country is also central to this year’s holiday decor, according to social secretary and residence manager Carlos Elizondo, who has worked with the Bidens for eight years and kicks off holiday planning with Dr. Biden as early as May. Aside from a greeting by the Bidens’ German shepherd Champ, the first thing guests—invited to one of the 17 holiday receptions the couple host this season—will notice is a constellation of gold stars hanging from the entrance hall table. Each star is calligraphed with the names of all medal of honor recipients during the Obama administration. “As a military family, the Bidens felt showing an appreciation for our troops was important,” Elizondo says.
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This year, three Christmas trees are on display. In the living room, the plump, North Carolina–grown Fraser fir—decked in magenta, orange, and gold ornaments and ribbons—is dubbed the “reserve tree,” as it is the runner-up to the tree selected by the National Christmas Tree Association for the White House’s Blue Room. The sunroom features a eight-foot tree with a whimsical woodland theme, adorned with snowflake and pinecone ornaments and topped with a watchful owl.
But the tree with the most meaning to the Bidens is in the library, where Dr. Biden and Elizondo staged a surprise for the vice president. “The library tree has ornaments with photos of all of their grandkids and Champ,” Elizondo says. The cozy room is also full of nods to Joe Biden’s home state of Delaware, from the holly wreaths (holly is the state’s official tree) to a gingerbread replica of his childhood home. The thoughtful space is just one more thing to be grateful for this holiday season.
