Imagine yourself wearing our Jolly Holly Day socks in the cheerful glow of twinkling lights. Relax with a good book, flanked by a festive Christmas tree adorned with ornaments and tinsel. If this doesn't convince, then maybe it's the fact that these are exclusively made for the National Archives Store by a mill in the U.S.A.

The tradition of the lighting of the National Christmas tree started by First Lady Grace Coolidge in 1923 when she gave permission to the District of Columbia Public Schools to erect a Christmas tree on the Ellipse South of the White House. The organizers quickly decided to dub it the National Christmas tree, and on that Christmas Eve, President Coolidge pushed the button lighting the 48-foot fir tree decorated with 2,500 electric bulbs in red, white and green, as a local choir and a quartet from the U.S. Marine Band performed. The tradition has continued for almost the last century through good times and bad as a chance for Americans to come together in the holiday spirit.

President Jimmy Carter was the first U.S. President to recognize and celebrate the holiday Hannukah with a Menorah lighting on the White House lawn in 1979. The secretary of the interior under Carter initially refused to issue a permit for a menorah on the White House lawn, citing the First Amendment, according to the Washington Post. But Stu Eizenstat, one of Carter’s advisers, argued that the National Christmas Tree’s permit should also be denied on the same grounds, and the event was allowed to proceed. President George W. Bush established the tradition of holding an official Hanukkah event at the White House in 2001.