Historic Odessa Foundation’s associate curator is headed to D.C. to help decorate the White House for the holidays.
Brian Miller says he was sitting with his wife when he got the call.
“I was just totally speechless," he said. "I was just so proud and so honored and just so excited - I just couldn’t believe it. So I could hardly tell her - it was just so exciting.”
Miller says he will join 99 other volunteers chosen from around the country.
“I will be representing the State of Delaware - the home of the President and First Lady," he said. "I put that in my application. And I hope that maybe that put me over the top to become a volunteer.”
Miller likes to think his 17-plus years transforming the Historic Odessa Foundation’s historic Corbit-Sharp House into a Christmas exhibit based on children’s literature helped him get the nod to help decorate the White House.
He says the difference is, instead of transforming six to 10 rooms, the White House has over 100 rooms - although not all of them will be decorated.
Miller says the staff-chosen theme for this year’s decorations are a highly guarded secret and even the volunteers won’t know what the theme is until they arrive to start decorating on Monday, November 21, 2022.
Past holiday themes have been “Gather Around,” “Joy to All” and “Give, Share.”
Decorating the White House for Christmas began in 1889 with President Benjamin Harrison and his family, and has been an uninterrupted tradition since the Hoover administration.
Former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy actually began the tradition of selecting a theme for the official White House Christmas tree in 1961. The theme that year was “Nutcracker Suite Ballet.”
