First Lady Jill Biden gives a tour of the White House at Christmastime tonight on HGTV

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The festive annual special celebrates the 300-plus volunteers it takes to deck out the country's most historic halls

White House Christmas
(Image credit: HGTV)

Every year, hundreds of volunteers from all across America doll up the White House for Christmastime in a staggering 72 hours. And HGTV will show off the whole dazzling process of decorating the country's most iconic home in its annual White House Christmas special, airing tonight, December 16 at 6pm Eastern Time.

During the one-hour special, First Lady Jill Biden will tour the People's House alongside renovator couple Brian and Mika Kleinschmidt of HGTV's 100 Day Dream Home, who will delve into how they chose to display this year's White House holiday theme—“A Season of Peace and Light”—into the decorative design of the home. It reportedly took more than 300 dedicated volunteers to put up this year's astonishing array of decorations, which more than 165,075 holiday lights; 83 Christmas trees; 28,125 ornaments; 9,810 feet of ribbon and 2,200 doves.

Among the festive holiday displays viewers will get to see include the Gold Star Tree exhibit, which honors fallen service members; an installation of peace doves suspended overheard in the Cross Hall; and, of course, the 18.5-foot official White House Christmas Tree in the Blue Room. There will also be a tasty first look at the 2024 Gingerbread White House, created from 25 sheets of gingerbread dough, 50 pounds of royal icing and 45 pounds of chocolate. Yum!

The Kleinschmidts are the latest in an illustrious lineup of featured designers who've taken on the daunting task of decorating the White House for the holidays; past designers include Drew and Jonathan Scott, Genevieve Gorder, Zooey Deschanel, Alison Victoria and Egypt Sherrod.

To watch tonight's White House Christmas special, you're going to need access to HGTV. Those with cable packages can watch on their local HGTV channel or by using the HGTV GO app, but even if you don't have traditional cable, cord-cutters can also tune in online with a live TV streaming service that carries HGTV, such as Fubo, Hulu with Live TV, Sling TV, Philo TV and YouTube TV. And if you miss the television broadcast tonight, White House Christmas will be available to stream same day on Max and Discovery+.

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Christina Izzo
Christina Izzo

Christina Izzo is the Deputy Editor of My Imperfect Life. More generally, she is a writer-editor covering food and drink, travel, lifestyle and culture in New York City. She was previously the Features Editor at Rachael Ray In Season and Reveal, as well as the Food & Drink Editor and chief restaurant critic at Time Out New York. 

When she’s not doing all that, she can probably be found eating cheese somewhere. 

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