December 8, 2025
7:00PM - 8:00PM EDT

The History of White House Holiday Traditions

Online

In this presentation, Dr. Matthew Costello, Chief Education Officer for the White House Historical Association, will highlight the history of different holidays and their accompanying traditions at the White House. This will include topics such as Christmas, Hanukkah, and New Year’s Day receptions, and how first families, White House staff, and guests have participated in these seasonal activities.

About our Presenter

Dr. Matthew Costello is the Chief Education Officer and Director of the David M. Rubenstein National Center for White House History, where he holds the Gerard B. Lambert Foundation Chair in White House History. In this role, he oversees the Association’s education programs, historical research, digital archives, public programming, and partnerships. Costello first joined the Association in 2016 as the Senior Historian after completing his Ph.D. and M.A. in American history at Marquette University. He has published articles in academic journals and magazines, as well as two books. The first, The Property of the Nation: George Washington’s Tomb, Mount Vernon, and the Memory of the First President, was a finalist for the George Washington Book Prize. He also co-edited and contributed a chapter to the volume Mourning the Presidents: Loss and Legacy in American Culture. Matthew was also the project lead for the Slavery in the President’s Neighborhood research initiative at the Association, and he teaches a course on White House history at American University.