Deck the White House

Checking out your neighbors' holiday decorations is all part of the season, but what happens when your neighbor is the White House? Decorating to the extreme. Each year, the presidential palace is dressed up in seasonal style and this time First Lady Michelle Obama enlisted the help of her favorite fashion designers to help with the interior design. 

In the China Room, Carolina Herrera covered boxes in her signature red and placed them in the middle of the room which had plaid-draped walls and an eight-foot tree. In the Vermeil Room, Duro Olowu chose vintage African fabrics to complement the three faux trees made out of seashells. In the library, Carol Lim and Humberto Leon paid tribute to the titles held in that storied room with tree-toppers made of books and custom ornaments made from the specific book on each tree. 

This year's theme is "A Timeless Tradition," and the White House family is honoring the military. Perhaps nothing does this better than the 18-and-a-half foot Fraser fir with graduated lighting in red, white and blue along with inscriptions written from military families to their members overseas. 

Over the holidays, more than 68,000 people guests will tour the White House to see 62 trees and more than 70,000 ornaments. And since here in Aspen they're not actually our neighbor, we can admire from afar -- and be glad we don't have to deal with that traffic!