Q: A Roosevelt Christmas Unwrapped?

By AJ Schenkman
Photo courtesy of AJ Schenkman

Franklin Delano Roosevelt came to his estate, Springwood in Hyde Park, to recharge his physical and mental spirits. This was especially true during his favorite holiday, Christmas, when he spent time there with family and friends.

Each year, the tree in his study was cut from the Christmas tree farm on the estate. Roosevelt loved to decorate with real candles, and with glass balls his mother had collected in Europe. After he became paralyzed from polio, he directed his family members on where to place each ornament. 

One fondly remembered holiday family tradition was Roosevelt reading Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, to his children and later his grandchildren. Stockings for all the family were hung in Roosevelt’s bedroom on Christmas Eve, and opened on his bed in the morning. Downstairs in the study, chairs were piled high with larger, wrapped presents.

Every year, the National Park Service decorates the mansion as Roosevelt would have remembered it. One difference: The holiday evergreen is no longer cut down from the property, as a precaution against introducing insects into the house that could destroy the historic items displayed there. 

The candles now are also battery operated, to prevent the risk of fire. 

Even with an artificial tree and lights, visitors can still feel what it was like to be at home for the holidays with FDR and his family.