White House Ornaments Adorn the Willard Tree Enjoy an up-close view of the entire White House Historical Association’s Christmas Ornament Collection— including the 2013 season’s new Woodrow Wilson White House Ornament displayed on the Willard InterContinental hotel’s magnificent lobby tree. It was President Wilson’s extraordinary quest for lasting world peace that inspired the design of the ornament. Plans for President Wilson’s League of Nations, precursor to the United Nations, took shape when he held meetings in the lobby of the Willard Hotel in 1916. The centerpiece of the 2013 ornament is an American Elm tree planted by President Wilson on the North Lawn of the White House on December 18, 1913, just before Christmas. The stately elm tree is depicted as it once stood, a quiet sentinel, beside the President’s House on a wintry day. This snowy scene is surrounded by a 24-karat gold-plated frame comprised of elm leaves, a wreath of olive branche and holly leaves bordering Wilson’s monogram. Two doves of peace perch upon the olive branches, bearing banners that announce “The White House, Christmas 2013.” The words inscribed on the ornament’s reverse side were delivered by President Wilson in his War Message to Congress of April 2, 1917: “Peace must be planted upon the tested foundations of political liberty.”
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