The people at the White House have not yet heard the news that there’s a bit of a recession going. As a result, the Obamas continue to live lifestyles reminiscent of the czars. The only thing missing is a nice little collection of Fabergé eggs.
Take, for example, the way the White House was decorated for Christmas. A couple weeks ago we had the story of hundreds of employees taking more than four days to decorate the White House Christmas tree. Silly us. We assumed that “the White House Christmas tree” meant there was one White House Christmas tree. But no. The White House has a friggin’ forest of Christmas trees. It’s just this side of an environmental disaster. And that’s just the beginning of the Obama’s ostentatious display of conspicuous consumption.
Here’s how Time Magazine describes it:
Inside Obama’s White House: a replica White House (made of gingerbread), a marzipan version of dog Bo and more Christmas trees than you can count.
The president’s Washington home has been elaborately outfitted for the holidays, with this year’s theme being “Simple Gifts.” Some of the decor is absolutely tiny. Inside the 350-pound, white chocolate-covered gingerbread replica White House is a miniature reproduction of the East Room (containing chocolate furniture), and there’s even a mini White House garden (also made of marzipan).
But dog Bo is the true star of this year’s Christmas decorations. Besides the marzipan Bo, there is another Bo replica made of 40,000 twisted black and white pipe cleaners.
Even though the theme is “Simple Gifts,” much of the decoration throughout the White House is anything but simple, including the numerous Christmas trees throughout as well as large stone urns filled with birch, beech and crystal branches.
The theme is “Simple Gifts” and yet they have a friggin’ forest of Christmas trees and a 350-pound white chocolate-covered gingerbread replica of the White House complete with a marzipan version of the President’s dog? Call us crazy, but that seems to be just about as far away from the concept of a simple gift as is possible.
Don’t look now, but the Obamas aren’t even in Washington, DC to enjoy this excess of excess. Why, in the middle of the Obama recession, are we pissing away this kind of money to decorate their home when they’re halfway around the world in freakin’ Hawaii for Christmas?
Photos by Brooks Kraft/Corbis for Time
Source: Time
