Melania Trump based this year’s White House Christmas decorations on ‘The Shining’

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Several years ago, I remember reading a wonderfully charming article about the people who volunteer to decorate the White House for Christmas. The same people often apply to volunteer, year after year, and you really do have to pass security checks and all of that, just to volunteer for one day in the White House. If we were still talking about the Obama WH, volunteering for that gig would have been on my bucket list. But I would not be caught dead in Melania Trump’s haunted Christmas house. Melania does not have any kind of knack for decorating, or for choosing what should be appropriate Christmas decor. Melania decided that, for Christmas 2018, the White House needed an eerie passageway filled with blood red trees. She decided to hang wreaths with cheap-looking “Be Best” ornaments. And she decided to make a little video where she looks like a lonely ghost who haunts the White House at Christmas:

What bothers me the most? It’s actually not the stupid Be Best ornaments, although they are moronically ironic. I think what bugs me the most is the feeling of Melania play-acting the “lady of the manor,” like she gets to waltz around and check on all of the work done by peasants. She won’t even allow the peasants to appear on camera. Melania’s getting a lot of crap for yet another year of terrible Christmas decorations, but dollars to donuts she didn’t even do ANYTHING. I bet her chief of staff was the one to choose the Handmaid’s Tale theme:

Or maybe in Melania’s mind, the theme was The Shining. RED RUM RED RUM RED RUM.

2018 White House Christmas Decorations

2018 White House Christmas Decorations

Photos courtesy of the White House, Backgrid.

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124 Responses to “Melania Trump based this year’s White House Christmas decorations on ‘The Shining’”

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  1. Darla says:

    I think if the past two years of WH Christmas decorations are a tour of her mind, we now know she’s as ill as her husband.

    • meh says:

      unpopular opinion: I liked this & last years Christmas decor.

      • Betsy says:

        They were appropriately dystopian, I can say that.

      • Zeddy says:

        I like these decorations.

      • Carmen says:

        Seriously? Last year the theme looked like “The Addams Family” and this year it looks like “The Handmaid’s Tale”.

      • Snowflake says:

        I like this year’s decorations

      • jwoolman says:

        I think last year’s looked a lot better with all the lights on. This year’s needs those Be Best ornaments removed. Really tacky.

      • WorldWeeeRy says:

        Melania has nice taste in fashion and how to dress herself, but based on her gilded penthouse she has no eye for decor. Obviously interior designers were hired to interpret what she’d approve. Imagine an artist trying to relate to the guarded fem-bot that is melania- hence the cool red and sterile homescape w the desperate “be best” (christmas-y?) baubles. Eeeeesh.

      • BBeauty says:

        I also liked last year and this years decor. It will not be a popular opinion here LOL.

    • LahdidahBaby says:

      If last year’s decorations were awful, this year’s are unthinkable. And her promotion of her “Be Best” campaign in the context of Christmas is bewildering. (Never mind that the very term “Be Best” is ungrammatical and someone with a better command of English should have told her so before that campaign launched.)

    • velourazure says:

      The ornaments look like the balls they use to choose lottery ticket winners. Appropriately tacky considering the inhabitants.

      • holly hobby says:

        It looks like they got children to hand write be best on the ornaments. Not even nice looking. I hope that’s not what they are making kids do in “camp.”

  2. Lightpurple says:

    When will this nightmare of tackiness end?

    ETA my favorite touch was the skylines on the mantelpieces of major cities that voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016.

    • chips n sticks says:

      🤣🤣🤣

    • CheckThatPrivilege says:

      LOL, thanks for making me laugh!

    • ItsJustBlanche says:

      They’re tacky and I’m so spiteful that I’m firing one of my employees for posting a picture of herself at trump rally! Before Christmas. I never liked her anyway. Of course I’m not telling her why I’m letting her go. I’m done with these idiots.

      • Sojaschnitzel says:

        This is so mean and I am not sure if you are joking, but I love it and I understand it 😀

    • holly hobby says:

      Yes they are places where people won’t roll out the welcome mat to them.

  3. RBC says:

    Lovely how Melania decided to use Putin’s favorite colour for the Christmas theme this year. He must be so pleased

    • My3cents says:

      I thought her inspiration was GOT the red wedding

    • jan90067 says:

      Nope, Handmaiden’s Tale. She’s telling Mario Mushroomhead that he’s not coming ANYWHERE near enough to grab her by the p**** lol

    • Milla says:

      Red is my fave colour. And it’s perfect for holidays. This is just a bit too much for my taste, but let’s not pretend she thought of anyone while giving orders if she did even that.

  4. Original T.C. says:

    Those red trees are creepy. I liked the decorations last year.

    • Erinn says:

      The funny thing is – when I just saw a close up of ONE tree I was like “oh, that’s kind of neat. I like that it’s all berries.” then I saw the shot of … all of those trees and it immediately took a steep nose-dive into terrifying. Like… if there was the odd, smaller berry tree scattered among normal trees I think it could have worked. But these people are so freaking tacky that there’s no way they’d have been sensible.

    • Lunde says:

      The trees look like props from a Dr. Who plot … where they turn out to be killer trees following and devouring people!

    • Lady D says:

      Those trees are what I imagine line the hallways of hell at Christmastime. I think the colour is truly appropriate for this particular White House.

  5. OriginalLala says:

    remember the video they put out last year of her hovering in the creepiest way watching the ballet dancers amongst her weird ghost trees? That was hilarious

    • Debby says:

      You then thought it couldn’t get worse and she thought “just you wait”. My god, those red monstrosities are absolutely hideous. You had one job, Melania!

      Also, look who’s referring to the “holiday season”. Way to fan the flames of the war on christmas. Be best!

  6. minx says:

    Hideous.
    And Melania needs to ditch that aging sugar baby hairstyle.

  7. Beth says:

    Seeing Melania slowly walking around a room full of blood red trees, with her hands in her pockets, and absolutely no expression on her face, doesn’t give me a warm Christmas spirit. These pictures are creepy

  8. grabbyhands says:

    I actually do find the Be Best ornaments to be the most offensive part. I expect the display to be tacky, but sticking those crappy, cheap looking ornaments everywhere when her husband is allowing frightened migrants to be gassed at the border and going to help bolster the campaign of someone joking about lynchings is stomach churning.

    About the only good thing to come out of this are the memes.

    • lucy2 says:

      They are really cheap and tacky, and this pack of grifters probably profited off them somehow.

    • Dr Mrs The Monarch says:

      The whole thing has a cheap “made in China” feel to it. So it is par for the course for this family. I would not be surprised if the trees spelled MAGA.

    • Chaine says:

      I’m sure the Be Best ornaments are for sale for an exorbitant price at the same place they sell the MAGA hats.

    • Castle Toz says:

      Those were taken off and disposed of as soon as the photographer said he’d got the shot. Let’s be real here

    • Andrea says:

      To quote Melanie’s jacket: “I really don’t care. Do you?” That b!tch could care less about what’s happening at the boarder or anywhere else for that matter. She’s pure evil. “Be best at being evil” is really what “be best” means to her and him.

    • Trashaddict says:

      The pencil wreaths were such a nice touch –

  9. Aven Sharp says:

    Does the WH not have heat? Why is she wearing a winte coat and gloves inside?

  10. xo says:

    ugh. That looks TERRIBLE. Is she doing it deliberately? Maybe she’s passive aggressive.

  11. Nancy says:

    She has a frozen heart to put up holiday decorations as children at the border are being tear-gassed. What border did you cross Melania, when you wanted to migrate to the United States. No worries, you have the correct eye, skin and hair color.

  12. bacondonut says:

    I’mmmmmm dreamin of a red Christmas…just like this one that Putin’s paid forrrrrr…

  13. Krysha says:

    At first, I thought oh c’mon, Kaiser, I’m sure you’re being too harsh (@the comments re the be best ornaments).
    I thought, surely, making ornaments which bear the name of her 1 and only program will be done tastefully and elegantly…
    Then I watched the video.
    They look like dollar store finds (if I’m being generous).
    But the hideous, tacky AF pencil wreaths really take cake.
    They remind me of high school art classes, where every no-talent kid was made to create a Christmas decoration or ornament. And those *still* turned out better than this mess.

  14. HK9 says:

    Sooooo, are the twins gonna show up at the end of that hallway, open some french doors and have a tide of blood wash away all those depressing decorations?Asking for a friend🤷🏽‍♀️

  15. Rhys says:

    That color is really unfortunate looking. It was probably a good idea on paper but when they roll the out… the trees look like they were made from bloody intestines. Eeek.

  16. tmbg says:

    This had to be her piece of lint husband’s idea. I think I’ll decorate my whole house with blue spruce trees.

    Seriously, did they hire a team of people with Sharpies to make those ornaments?

  17. Eric says:

    Well I guess “Melanie” is playing the part immortalized by Shelley Duvall and she has her own Jack Torrance living like a madman in the White House. Wendy was in denial for a long time too, Melanie, about Jack’s destructive mind. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
    Maybe Barron can play the part of Danny “Doc” Torrance and scribble and scream
    REDRUM
    On the doors and in the room of the Oval Office in an effort to highlight Khassogi’s murder.
    Don Junior and Eric can play the parts of the movie where two guys are enjoying each other’s company while dressed as furries.

    Ivanka can play the lady in the bathtub who rises as a young woman only to be an old hag. Kiss for Jack?

    Smells like oranges to me Doc. That’s when I could see things. Can you see it Doc? Do you have the Shine?

  18. Lila says:

    These photos look like ,if Norman Rockwell painted while getting high on LSD.

  19. Tiny Martian says:

    ugh. All that top picture needs is some swastikas, and the effect would be complete……maybe as tree toppers?

    And I don’t get the whole “Be Best” slogan at all. What does that even mean? Be best at what? It’s weirdly competitive sounding for what is supposedly an anti-bullying campaign. And I’m kind of wondering what form of child labor went into creating those tacky ornaments…………..just sayin’.

  20. Jerusha says:

    At least it’s not gold leaf like their shitty trump Tower apartment.

  21. TeamAwesome says:

    This is the 2nd year that one of my coworkers volunteered for this, ugh.

  22. Melania says:

    I can’t stop laughing LOL When you haven’t good taste, you will always make disasters. She managed to make even Christmas decorations horrible and a joke (I love the Shining comparison LOL).
    I’m so pissed that we share the same name.

    • Andrea says:

      Expect it looks like it cost a fortune. Who is paying for that?! America has a lot of problems (homelessness, joblessness, lawlessness, gosh I could go on) and to splash out on expensive looking Christmas decorations is obnoxious.

  23. Magdalin says:

    Towards the beginning, for the first 20 seconds of the video, the music is just slightly out-of-tune. Like, a half-tone below the pitch. It was excruciating and all I could focus upon.

  24. Nanny to the rescue says:

    Dunno why but I like the red trees.
    I’m not a fan of traditional decorations, so that’s no surprise.

  25. My3cents says:

    I guess we can be thankful she didn’t hang up little kids in cages as Christmas decorations on those bloody trees.

    • Mgsota says:

      😂😂😂 I’m laughing and crying at the same time. This nightmare we are living in is starting to make me crack a little.

  26. Anastasia says:

    I mean, yes, red IS one of the traditional colors of Christmas. But it’s to be used judiciously. As a counterpart to green or gold or silver or white, or some combination.

    Green trees and greenery were first used to decorate indoors because winter was so dark and dreary, and the evergreens were a lovely reminder that spring would come again. When you eliminate all the green, it just doesn’t look right.

    Maybe she wants to remind the world she’s just as evil as her husband.

  27. Eliza says:

    She loves monochromatic. Last year ghostly white, this year bloody red… leaving next year, what, deep blue sea?

  28. Nanea says:

    If one compares the pics of Melanoma walking around the house dressed in her coat, complete with gloves and scarf, like any visitor coming in from the cold, to the ones of other First Ladies, helping with the decoration – or with ones of RR and Nancy in the private quarters of # 1600 – one finally has the proof that she lives anywhere but at the WH.
    Be Best at avoiding any kind pf responsibility – and Be Best at making sure “I really don’t care. Do U?”.

    • ChillyWilly says:

      Yeah, I wouldn’t have been surprised if she had “I really don’t care” ornaments made along with the moronic “Be Best”. Nothing these cretins do surprises me anymore.

  29. ChillyWilly says:

    Melanie is the worst at Christmas. That video is terrifying.

  30. Flutterby says:

    “Come play with us Donnie”

    “Here’s DONNIE! “

  31. Q T Hush says:

    Wasn’t last years decor all crystal and white? Is the first Stepford lady confusing Halloween with Christmas? I wonder if their going to make little jacket ornaments with “I don’t really care..” to put next to the “be best” ones. Yikes, we are getting totally ripped off by this Russian mob run administration. I would love to see the monthly expenditures of these useless a$$holes but then again I’m still waiting for EZ’s tax returns. Hahaha another thing to add to my list for Santa.

  32. Beth says:

    She looks like a vampire walking around bloody trees. “Velcome to the Vite House of terror. Vy name is Melvania.”

  33. akasamsmom says:

    This is what Target’s seasonal department looks like in the Upside Down, manned by the scariest demogorgon they could find.

  34. adastraperaspera says:

    It’s 100% hideous. Can’t wait until the people’s house is in the people’s hands once more–soon!!

  35. sel says:

    lol, it’s one hallway with the red decor. the rest of it seems to be the average christmas tree and decor. americans are such drama queens on both sides of the political spectrum.

    • ChillyWilly says:

      No, we just hate the dotard and his entire family’s guts (except Barron) and that includes these creepy blood red trees.

  36. Lama Bean says:

    The wreath made of #BeBest pencils is my personal favorite of the tacky decorations.

    • GreenBunny says:

      Someone pointed out on twitter that the be best pencil wreath looks like an anus and now I can’t unsee it.

  37. Snowflake says:

    I hate the wearing of a coat off the shoulders! Either wear it or don’t! And why is she wearing it inside?

    • Pandy says:

      I know … and the driving gloves, just to complete the lady of the manor look. those tacky Be Best ornaments are the BEST!!! Like pool balls with childish printing … omg … the Shining Twins are everything.

  38. Lala11_7 says:

    Trump…and ANYONE associated with Trump…will FOREVER be….

    So…tacky….

  39. Persistent Cat says:

    It’s like President Snow hired her to decorate in celebration of the 75th Hunger Games.

  40. boredblond says:

    Oh, I get it! The climate change deniers want to prepare us for the time when ‘natural greenery’ is just a memory…with trees dyed to match his big ugly red ties ..”Here’s Donnie!”

  41. Beach Dreams says:

    Trashy. The awful trees, those tacky Be Best ornaments, Melanoma in her best Jocelyn Wildenstein impression…everything is just trashy.

    • Harryg says:

      It’s embarrassingly and frighteningly tacky. It’s tacky and creepy and sad. Tacky and weird and cold and vampire-like. TACKY.

  42. Teresa says:

    I am not from US, so maybe I don’t understand the context and tradition – but this seems so over the top for me. Imagine what could be done with all this money spent on these decorations? Especially during Christmas when so many people don’t even have warm food on their table and therefore find it so hard to feel any kind of Christmas spirit.
    It would be considered outright crazy if our president spent so much on Christmas decorations.

    • KatV says:

      Yeah, I don’t get that either. Maybe someone can explain this?
      It’s not very pretty – more weird.

  43. Marianne says:

    The red trees might not have been so bad if they were decorated in some way.

    Also, that one pic of Baron…holy crap is that boy lanky.

  44. kbl says:

    Sure, the red trees are weird so we are only going to see pictures of those. However, I don’t think the rest of it looks bad: https://www.washingtonian.com/2018/11/26/photos-the-2018-white-house-christmas-decorations/

  45. Incredulous says:

    Disappointed none of the trees started going “YIP! YIP!” at her.

  46. Sue Smith says:

    This posting, and especially the comments, has to rate as the BEST CELEBITCHY ITEM OF ALL TIME.

  47. Chef Grace says:

    I like creepy things. But not First Fembot wandering through a hallway of red tide trees.
    Or blood of my enemies trees.
    I keep waiting for Putin in a Santa hat to jump out.

  48. MeghanNotMarkle says:

    Last year looked like a tacky winter wedding and this year looks like a tacky winter funeral. Given the trouble Manafort has gotten himself into and developments in the investigation, it’s all very appropriate.

  49. mela says:

    She is creepy AF

  50. Syd says:

    Everything about this is petty because so many of you can’t see straight out of your liberal eyes.

    I wouldn’t dare tell someone how to decorate their home- no matter what their taste or whose home it is! I walk in and find something to love and compliment (just in case someone cares to be above the pettiness and wants to join me).

  51. minnie mouse says:

    creepy, creepy, OMG WTF

  52. Willowy Willow says:

    It’s as if someone gathered together all the staked vampires in True Blodd and formed that mess into trees. Sorry .. super not feeling this fakakta mess.