For the second conservative year, Melania Trump’s White House Christmas decor is being roasted on the open fire that is Twitter.
Unveiled today, the decorations drew immediate comparisons to the “blood hallway” sequence in the iconic horror film “The Shining,” as well as at least one scene in “The Handmaid’s Tale,” Netflix’s dystopian epic about female repression.
The buntings and baubles that attracted those two analogies are housed in the White House’s East Colonnade. The sunny hallway is lined with two columns of pine trees that are solid red and lack decorations. The White House is calling them “topiary trees,” and their boughs seem to have been constructed from strung red orbs, which resemble the strings of cranberries that accented the Christmas trees of yore.
“The choice of red is an extension of the pales, or stripes found in the presidential seal designed by our Founding Fathers. It is a symbol of valor and bravery,” said the first lady’s office, which is customarily responsible for the decor, in a statement.
But the effect — essentially the flipside of last year’s motif, in which the trees were solid white and also derided as horror movie worthy — didn’t draw too many warm feelings on social media.
“How many Elmos did they kill to make those?” said one Twitter user.
Those trees look furry. Way too much red. Like – blood from The Shining elevator- too much red. Or as a friend said, it looks like they used Elmo pelts. LOL. Like now I wonder….how many Elmos did they kill to make those? https://t.co/9Hii5cea6D
— Goddesscomedia Karen (@KarenEhler) November 26, 2018
I give Melania credit: No other First Lady ever made the White House Christmas look so much like the Circles of Hell. pic.twitter.com/VHfbmgUr6d
— Abaddon (@BacchusFan) November 26, 2018
Hey, Melania, what’s the White House’s Christmas theme this year?
Oh, that’s unfortunate.#mondaymotivation pic.twitter.com/qZsPuVxTjV— Holly Figueroa O’Reilly (@AynRandPaulRyan) November 26, 2018
A live took at White House being decorated for Christmas. pic.twitter.com/4TvBomgx3l
— ?’s Hoe Hoe Hoe Morgan. (@mport56) November 26, 2018
Two things I have never seen before at the White House (or anywhere else for that matter): Red Christmas trees and “Be Best” ornaments. https://t.co/PaUta9BVEj
— Jonathan Karl (@jonkarl) November 26, 2018
This year’s theme is “American Treasures,” the first lady’s office said. Other decorations include a Green Room tribute to America’s harvest and a Red Room festooned with wreaths created from pencils touting Be Best, Melania Trump’s child-empowerment campaign. The traditional White House gingerbread house was made from 525 pounds of gingerbread dough and depicted the entire Washington Mall.
Your occasional reminder that #BeBest is a grammar mistake. Seen here as part of the White House Christmas decorations. pic.twitter.com/2f2LN3jtTW
— Philip Crowther (@PhilipinDC) November 26, 2018
But a different tradition was abandoned this year. Since at least Nancy Reagan’s time, the first lady has appeared at the press event for the decorations’ unveiling. But Melania Trump decided to sit this one out.
Her spokesperson, Stephanie Grisham, said Trump wanted “to let the decorations speak for themselves.”