Speaker 1: History Versus is a production of I Heart Radio and
Speaker 1: Mental Flaws. It's six am on Christmas morning and Theodore
Speaker 1: Roosevelt's children, Alice, Ted Kermit, Ethel, Archie and Quentin are
Speaker 1: pounding at the President's bedroom door. As per tradition. Their stockings,
Speaker 1: which Tier notes are all bulging out with queer angles
Speaker 1: and rotundities, are hanging above the fireplace in their parents room.
Speaker 1: Theater and his wife Edith get up, remove the stockings,
Speaker 1: light a fire and let the children in. The kids
Speaker 1: eagerly unpack their stockings, and after breakfast they open bigger
Speaker 1: presents in the library. Each child's pile of gifts is
Speaker 1: on a separate table. Among the presents are an electric
Speaker 1: railroad for Quentin, a rifle in writing boots for Archie,
Speaker 1: and a pile of books for Tier and Edith. But
Speaker 1: the day holds an even bigger surprise than the goodies
Speaker 1: the Roosevelt's opened. Sometime during the festivities, Archie turns to
Speaker 1: his father. Just look here for a minute, he said,
Speaker 1: as I want you to glance into this old closet.
Speaker 1: He presses a button and opens the closet door to
Speaker 1: reveal a Christmas tree. It's clear that eight year old
Speaker 1: Archie has been scheming for some time. First he drafted
Speaker 1: a steward to buy the tiny, two foot tall tree
Speaker 1: for twenty cents at the market and smuggle it into
Speaker 1: the White House. Then, with the help of the carpenter,
Speaker 1: he'd rigged it up in a closet his mother rarely used.
Speaker 1: The building's electrician had helped him string it with lights
Speaker 1: which can be turned on at the push of a button.
Speaker 1: Gifts for each family member and for Jack the dog,
Speaker 1: Tom Courts the kitten, and Algonquin the pony adorn the branches,
Speaker 1: as roosevelt friend Robert Lincoln O'Brien will write a year later.
Speaker 1: All of the family were there, as was Quentin's nurse,
Speaker 1: but none appeared more astonished than Mr Roosevelt himself at
Speaker 1: the sight of this diminutive Christmas tree. You might be wondering,
Speaker 1: why would a Christmas tree be so surprising? Well, the
Speaker 1: Roosevelts didn't typically have a Christmas because, according to legend anyway,
Speaker 1: Theodore Roosevelt, avid conservationist, had banned them. The stories would
Speaker 1: have you believe that when Archie revealed his festive stunt,
Speaker 1: his father gave him a patented tr lecture, but what
Speaker 1: actually happened? From Mental Floss and I Heart Radio, this
Speaker 1: is History Versus, a podcast about how your favorite historical
Speaker 1: figures faced off against their greatest foes. I'm your host,
Speaker 1: Aaron McCarthy, and this week, in honor of the upcoming
Speaker 1: Christmas holiday, we're doing something a little different. We're looking
Speaker 1: at the fact and fiction behind a pervasive theater Roosevelt
Speaker 1: Christmas Tale. This episode is tr versus Christmas Trees. Theodore
Speaker 1: Roosevelt loved Christmas, which he called an occasion of literally
Speaker 1: delirious joy. That love began in his childhood with the
Speaker 1: efforts of his parents than Middy, who strove to make
Speaker 1: the holiday special. According to historian Kathleen Dalton, when Tier
Speaker 1: and his siblings were kids, his mother gloried in piling
Speaker 1: Christmas table high with toys for her children, and she
Speaker 1: loved to watch their glee on Christmas morning. Tire recalled
Speaker 1: those days in his autobiography, writing about nabbing big stockings
Speaker 1: from the grownups, hanging them up the night before Christmas,
Speaker 1: and opening them the morning of on his parents bed.
Speaker 1: After breakfast, Thee and Mitty would throw open the doors
Speaker 1: of the drawing room where each child had his or
Speaker 1: her presence piled on their own table. They kept up
Speaker 1: the tradition even when they were traveling, and when they
Speaker 1: spent the holiday in the city, he would often go
Speaker 1: to one of the charitable organizations he supported for dinner,
Speaker 1: the Newsboys Lodging House, for example, and bring his kids along.
Speaker 1: In his autobiography, tr wrote that I never knew anyone
Speaker 1: else have what seemed to me such attractive Christmases, and
Speaker 1: in the next generation I tried to reproduce them exactly
Speaker 1: for my own children. And he did just that, repeating
Speaker 1: the stocking breakfast presence on the table tradition year after year.
Speaker 1: Of one Christmas morning, in when Tira was in d C.
Speaker 1: Serving on this of All Service Commission, he wrote to
Speaker 1: his sister Baby that the children enjoyed it with the
Speaker 1: same wild rapture we ourselves felt twenty five years ago.
Speaker 1: In three he wrote to his sister Karin, I wonder
Speaker 1: whether there can ever come in life a thrill of
Speaker 1: greater exaltation and rapture than that which comes to one
Speaker 1: between the ages of say, six and fourteen, when the
Speaker 1: library door is thrown open and you walk in to
Speaker 1: see all the gifts like a materialized fairyland arraid on
Speaker 1: your special table. The family loved snow around Christmas. The
Speaker 1: kids would have all kinds of romps in the snow
Speaker 1: to your wrote one year coasting, having snowball fights and
Speaker 1: doing everything in the grounds back of the White House.
Speaker 1: When in Long Island, they'd bundle up and take a
Speaker 1: sleigh ride to church on Christmas Eve, and there's plenty
Speaker 1: of physical activity, of course. The Roosevelts finished up their
Speaker 1: first holiday in the White House by dancing a Virginia
Speaker 1: reel in the east room. According to historian Edmund Morris,
Speaker 1: tears wild dance moves made Edith laugh until she cried.
Speaker 1: On Christmas two year and Ted took a three hour
Speaker 1: long horse ride, and the President played a game of
Speaker 1: single stick with some friends that left him with a
Speaker 1: bump over one eye and a swollen wrist. You know,
Speaker 1: typical theater Roosevelt stuff. But though they had many beloved
Speaker 1: traditions surrounding the holiday, a Christmas tree wasn't one of them.
Speaker 1: And while that seems weird to us now, Christmas was
Speaker 1: celebrated much differently in the nineteenth century than it is today.
Speaker 1: In a blog post for the Theatre Roosevelt Center website.
Speaker 1: Carrie young Strand notes that back then, Christmas was a
Speaker 1: quiet religious holiday, marked by private family traditions brought from
Speaker 1: the old world. As Jamie Lewis writes at the Far
Speaker 1: Society's History blog, up until the late eighteen forties, many
Speaker 1: Americans thought Christmas trees were pagan symbols, so they weren't
Speaker 1: pervasive in homes. The same held true for the Executive Mansion.
Speaker 1: Christmas trees wouldn't become an integral part of the holiday
Speaker 1: celebration there until the nineteen twenties. But what makes the
Speaker 1: Roosevelt case somewhat unusual was that in the nineteenth century,
Speaker 1: Americans often did have a tree if the household had
Speaker 1: young children. Lewis writes that adults would presents under or
Speaker 1: on the tree for the kids. Grover Cleveland and Benjamin
Speaker 1: Harrison both had trees in the White House. At home
Speaker 1: in Oyster Bay, the Roosevelts provided a Christmas tree, which
Speaker 1: tr cut down himself in the woods of Sagamore Hill
Speaker 1: with the help of an employee to kof Neck Elementary School,
Speaker 1: where it was decorated by a teacher. Then Roosevelt acted
Speaker 1: as Santa Claus. According to article in the New York Tribune,
Speaker 1: when the tree was unveiled, Tier was on hand early,
Speaker 1: his arms full with the store of mysterious packages and bundles,
Speaker 1: and his eyes critically appraising the last minute decorations. The colonel,
Speaker 1: beaming from ear to ear, announced that he had been
Speaker 1: delegated by St. Nick to act as his emissary, and
Speaker 1: began reading from the packages which crowded the foot of
Speaker 1: the tree, the names of the various fortunate recipients. He
Speaker 1: even brought them his favorite hard candy from when he
Speaker 1: was a kid. In the words of his friend Jacob Brice,
Speaker 1: Mr Roosevelt made a good Santa Claus, but still there
Speaker 1: was no tree at home. We'll be right back. The
Speaker 1: fact that the Roosevelt's, with a household full of young kids,
Speaker 1: didn't have a Christmas tree in the White House made
Speaker 1: national news basically every year. In nineteen o one, the
Speaker 1: New York Daily Tribune noted that, following an established custom
Speaker 1: in the Roosevelt household, there will be no Christmas tree
Speaker 1: this year at the White House. That same year, the
Speaker 1: Washington Times said that White House attendees were disappointed about
Speaker 1: the lack of tree, writing that they had supposed that
Speaker 1: with so many children, the tree would be indispensable. The
Speaker 1: following year, The New York Sun reported the same thing,
Speaker 1: no tree, although thanks to archie surprise, they would be wrong.
Speaker 1: In nineteen o three, George's The Brunswick Daily said that
Speaker 1: following the custom of last year, it has been decided
Speaker 1: to have no Christmas tree at the White House. And
Speaker 1: in nineteen o four, well, you get the idea. After
Speaker 1: Archie went rogue, though Lewis writes that the papers wondered
Speaker 1: each holiday season for the rest of tiers president and
Speaker 1: see what will happen and if Archie will pull a
Speaker 1: fast one. There was much speculation as to why the
Speaker 1: Roosevelts went treeless on Christmas. The Washington Times reported that
Speaker 1: the Roosevelt kids didn't even like trees, and that t
Speaker 1: are preferred to celebrate according to the customs of Holland.
Speaker 1: The Dutch version of Santa or Center Class, was big
Speaker 1: on leaving gifts and footwear. South Carolina's Greenville News roade
Speaker 1: in nineteen o four that Santa would visit the White
Speaker 1: House as he did other homes in the US, but
Speaker 1: he would not furnish a Christmas tree, and the President
Speaker 1: and his wife do not bother about providing one. Whether
Speaker 1: they think Santa Claus would not like for them to
Speaker 1: do something he had failed to do cannot be officially stated,
Speaker 1: But as soon as nineteen o three, another explanation had
Speaker 1: emerged that Tier opposed Christmas trees because of environmental concerns.
Speaker 1: As O'Brien wrote in Ladies Home Journal, the President's love
Speaker 1: for the living things of the forest in their own
Speaker 1: natural setting is so great it has been suggested that
Speaker 1: he prefers not to encourage the wanton slaughter of small trees.
Speaker 1: By December nineteen o nine, it was being reported as
Speaker 1: fact in the press. Gifford Pinchot, chief of the Division
Speaker 1: of Forestry, was thrown into the tail for good measure.
Speaker 1: He supposedly sided with Santa Claus and showed how Christmas
Speaker 1: tree cutting to the forest good in many places. It's
Speaker 1: true that Tierra was no fan of destructive lumbering practices.
Speaker 1: After all, this is the guy who created the U. S.
Speaker 1: Forest Service and established a hundred and fifty national forests.
Speaker 1: In five he gave a speech titled The Forest in
Speaker 1: the Life of a Nation, in which he noted that
Speaker 1: things like fire and destructive lumbering practices, combined with legitimate lumbering,
Speaker 1: are destroying our forest resources far more rapidly than they
Speaker 1: are being replaced, and that if there was nothing done
Speaker 1: to curb the destruction of forests, a timber famine would
Speaker 1: be inevitable. Remember, he added that you can prevent such
Speaker 1: a timber famine occurring by wise action taken in time,
Speaker 1: but once the famine occurs, there is no possible way
Speaker 1: of hurrying the growth of the trees necessary to relieve it.
Speaker 1: The guy clearly loved trees, and national sentiment at the
Speaker 1: time was decidedly anti Christmas tree. An editorial suggested that
Speaker 1: an inventor create a wire Christmas tree, warranted to bear
Speaker 1: a gift for every member of the family and to
Speaker 1: be absolutely fireproof. As wire is durable, a large family
Speaker 1: of children could be brought up on one Christmas tree
Speaker 1: and much timber would be saved. According to Lewis, President
Speaker 1: McKinley got letters asking him to forego a tree. The
Speaker 1: writers called cutting down trees for Christmas arboreal infanticide, and
Speaker 1: by the time Tire became president, opposition to the practice
Speaker 1: had reached its peak, with the public arguing against cutting
Speaker 1: trees for reasons ranging from destructive harvesting practices to wastefulness.
Speaker 1: One paper called the trees an absurd fad that we're
Speaker 1: resulting in the woods being stripped. In his piece for
Speaker 1: Ladies Home Journal, O'Brien noted that if t are disapproved
Speaker 1: of the practice on conservation grounds, he has not so
Speaker 1: informed his closest friends. Lewis writes that Theodore Roosevelt never
Speaker 1: came out specifically against harvesting Christmas trees, and when he
Speaker 1: spoke with writer Bridget Cats for a Mental Fluss piece
Speaker 1: on this subject, Lewis was emphatic. Ultimately, Roosevelt had no
Speaker 1: ban on Christmas trees, he told Cats. As for why
Speaker 1: the press was so interested in the Roosevelt's lack of tree,
Speaker 1: Lewis had an explanation for us. He said that not
Speaker 1: only were the Roosevelt's a dynamic, fascinating family that the
Speaker 1: press loved covering, but that the papers might have been
Speaker 1: wanting for content as the holiday approached. Lewis told Cats
Speaker 1: that Congress would have adjourned weeks before, so the media
Speaker 1: is desperate for copy, and here we have this fascinating family.
Speaker 1: I think some of the myth and legend is born
Speaker 1: out of boredom. Frankly, still, despite the lack of evidence,
Speaker 1: tr supposed stance on Christmas trees and the story about
Speaker 1: pin Shows stepping into set him straight are still reported
Speaker 1: as fact today. Theodore Roosevelt's ban on Christmas trees even
Speaker 1: made it into an episode of Drunk History. We'll be
Speaker 1: right back. The fact of the matter is, we may
Speaker 1: never really know why the Roosevelts didn't have a tree.
Speaker 1: Perhaps it's because Baby had one at her house and
Speaker 1: the Roosevelts were there most Christmases, Or perhaps, as O'Brien wrote,
Speaker 1: it was because the Roosevelt's favorite simplicity, the White House
Speaker 1: was in decorated goddily for the season. Either or maybe,
Speaker 1: as the Baltimore Sun posited in December nine, one, with
Speaker 1: so many children and so many visitors, there was a
Speaker 1: room for one and that Baby's tree would just have
Speaker 1: to suffice. Or as Louis told Autlice Obscura, it could
Speaker 1: be that Edith put the Kabbash on a tree. After all,
Speaker 1: the Roosevelts had six kids and a veritable zoo of pets,
Speaker 1: which included at one time or another, opossums flying squirrels
Speaker 1: and kangaroo rats, a pig named Maud, a badger named Josiah,
Speaker 1: a hyaena named Bill, a one legged rooster, guinea pigs
Speaker 1: with names like Father O'Grady and Fighting Bob Evans, and
Speaker 1: of course tomp Courts the Kitten, Algonquin the pony, and
Speaker 1: Jack the Dog, among many many others to worry about.
Speaker 1: But the most likely explanation seems to be that Roosevelt
Speaker 1: loved the Christmas traditions of his childhood, and those traditions
Speaker 1: didn't include a tree, so there was no tree, at
Speaker 1: least not until two. What we do know is that
Speaker 1: Archie's antics appear to have been met with delight, not
Speaker 1: a lecture from the President, and may have even started
Speaker 1: a new Roosevelt family tradition. In nineteen o six, Tier
Speaker 1: wrote to Karin that Archie and Quentin had created a
Speaker 1: variant on what is otherwise a strictly inherited form of
Speaker 1: our celebration, for they fix up, or at least Archie
Speaker 1: fixes up a special Christmas tree in Archie's room. While
Speaker 1: tr and Edith were admiring Archie's tree, two kids snuck
Speaker 1: out of the room to set up a small lighted
Speaker 1: Christmas tree in their parents room. It had tr wrote
Speaker 1: two huge stockings for Edith and myself. The next year
Speaker 1: he wrote to Baby that there was a Christmas tree
Speaker 1: of archies in as far as Society blog, Louis notes
Speaker 1: that the casualness of Trs comments may suggest that by
Speaker 1: this point a tree was actually expected, and perhaps that
Speaker 1: fact is what led the kids to provide a tree
Speaker 1: for their parents. They wanted to surprise tr once again.
Speaker 1: Today Archie's exploits live on and Gary Hines's children's book
Speaker 1: A Christmas Tree in the White House. And if this
Speaker 1: episode has made you wonder whether you should go with
Speaker 1: a real tree on Christmas, it's worth noting that at
Speaker 1: least these days, Christmas trees are crops grown on farms.
Speaker 1: According to the New York Times, it takes under a
Speaker 1: decade for a tree to reach five or six ft,
Speaker 1: and it's replaced with a new tree when a farmer
Speaker 1: cuts it down. Christmas tree farming practices are sustainable, and
Speaker 1: the trees do a lot for the environment before they're
Speaker 1: cut down, and they have the potential to do more
Speaker 1: after two if you compost them or donate them to
Speaker 1: a zoo where they can be used as in Richmond
Speaker 1: toys or snacks for animals. We'll be back next week
Speaker 1: with a regular episode of History Versus. We hope you
Speaker 1: have a great holiday. History Versus is hosted by me
Speaker 1: Aaron mcarth. This episode was written by me, with fact
Speaker 1: checking by Austin Thompson. The executive producers are Aaron McCarthy,
Speaker 1: Julie Douglas, and Tyler Klang. The supervising producer is Dylan Fagan.
Speaker 1: The show was edited by Dylan Fagan and lowbra Ante.
Speaker 1: To learn more about this episode and Theodore Roosevelt, check
Speaker 1: out our website at mental fluss dot com, slash History Versus.
Speaker 1: That's mental fluss dot com, slash hi s t o
Speaker 1: r y vs. History Versus is the production of I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio and Mental Floss. For more podcasts from my
Speaker 1: heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple podcast,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.