Whether it’s Melania Trump’s blood-red trees or Jill Biden’s video that was compared to The Hunger Games, White House Christmas decorations always spark debate.
The festive designs have been a focal responsibility for first ladies for decades and are often adored, or ridiculed, depending on the president’s political party.
This year, DailyMail.com decided to put the issue to voters – without telling them whether a Democrat or Republican first lady was behind the vision.
Scroll down for the results
Option 1: Americans were asked to rate the Christmas decorations of first ladies in a blind test: The first choice shows trees strung simply with white lights and decorated with white and pearl bulbs
Option 2: The second choice includes trees dressed with white lights and red bulbs. The tree stands were decorated with tartan and plaid
Pollsters J.L. Partners asked 1,000 Americans to pick their favorite from two sets of decorations that have, at various times, been set up in the Cross Hall, a hallway on the first floor of the White House.
Poll
Which set of White House Christmas decorations do you prefer?
- Option 1 4340 votes
- Option 2 4976 votes
Now share your opinion
The choice was between Melania’s 2020 designs and Jill’s from this year, but respondents were asked to make their selection blind.
The first option shows trees strung simply with white lights and decorated with white and pearl bulbs, with tufts of fake snow at their feet.
A large nutcracker is seen peeking out from the White House State Dining Room, while Santa’s reindeer are affixed to the ceiling.
The second option Americans were asked to rate includes trees dressed with white lights and red bulbs.
The tree stands were decorated with tartana and plaid.
Another grand tree is seen down the hallway from the State Dining Room.
Both Trump and Biden have been criticized and praised in equal measure for their touches around the holidays.
But the reaction is often tainted by which party critics support.
When asked to make the selection purely based on the decorations, the results are surprising.
Melania Trump decorated the East Colonnade with dramatic white branches in 2017, the first year she served as first lady. The photoshoot of her walking through the hallway in her bell-shaped white dress was turned into a meme and labeled creepy
Melania Trump’s red topiaries, made from berries, were critized for looking like the trademark costume from The Handmaid’s Tale
For the past two years, the Bidens have hangs up stockings in the White House for six of their seven grandchildren – but never for their seventh grandchild, Navy Joan. This year’s Christmas display didn’t have stockings
The winner of DailyMail.com’s decking the halls poll was option two, designed by Melania.
54 percent of respondents said they preferred her trinkets over those dreamed-up by Jill in option one.
Republicans, perhaps attracted to all that red, liked them the most, with 57 percent of Republicans selecting Trump’s to 43 percent who said Biden’s.
But Trump even got a narrow majority of Democrats to say she did it better.
DailyMail.com’s polling found that 51 percent of Democrats liked Trump’s decor compared to 49 percent who said Biden.
Americans older than 65 liked Biden’s the most. Among that demographic, 53 percent voted for Biden and 47 percent said Trump.
Joe Alder, senior research associate, at J.L. Partners, noted that while it was close, ‘the public’s verdict was clear: Melania Trump brought the finer Christmas decor to the White House.’
‘Remarkably, Melania showed a particularly astute sense for the tastes of her husband’s political base: Republicans preferred her decorations by a margin of 15 points, with Democrats agreeing but by only one point,’ Alder said. ‘Jill Biden’s decorations had a stronger appeal with older Americans – the only group with whom she won out – but overall it was Melania with the touch for the nation’s tastes.’
In 2017, when Trump decorated the East Colonnade in dramatic white winter branches – and then was captured during the holiday preview walking through them in a bell-sleeved white dress – the images were described as ‘creepy’ and ‘nightmare-ish.’
The next year the same space gave her some problems, when Trump displayed crimson topiary made of berries throughout the hallway atop a green carpet.
First lady Melania Trump’s Cross Hall decorations from 2020 won out over first lady Jill Biden’s Cross Hall decorations from this year by eight points. Trump got the support among Republicans but won Democrats by a slim majority too
The red trees were described as blood-like or resembling the trademark costume from The Handmaid’s Tale.
The Bidens have taken some flack for displaying stockings with their grandchildren’s names adorned to them, but never for Hunter’s daughter with Lunden Roberts, Navy Joan.
Earlier this year the Bidens acknowledged their seventh grandchild – but there were no stockings at this year’s Christmas display.
There was, however, a video performance of a New York City-based tap dance ensemble, which conservatives online branded as bizarre, freaky and absolute garbage.
In a blind assessment of the two first ladies’ Christmas decorations, Trump came out the winner – 54 percent to 46 percent.