CINCINNATI, Ohio — More than 300 volunteers put up almost 100 Christmas trees and thousands of decorations at the White House. One of those presidential decorators is right here in Ohio, and she said you can make your house look presidential too. 

What You Need To Know

  • Wedding planner and designer Carla O'Neal was invited to the White House to help decorate it for the holidays 

  • She said she and her team spent more than a week just decorating to get everything just right for the executive mansion

  • To get your own space looking as festive as the White House she suggests picking a theme, starting small and buying decor after the holidays 

Mother of two Carla O’Neal went from Cincinnati straight to the White House.

“I didn’t believe it at first,” she said. “I think it was really surreal.”

She was one of more than 300 volunteers who did nothing but put up Christmas decorations for more than a week straight.

“The whole entire White House is decorated from top to bottom, even outside, so my team was actually assigned the outside of the building,” O’Neal said. “We were doing a lot of painting, a lot of building, a lot of sketching, a lot of everything.”

She said she was invited to help create the presidential Christmas decor because of her wedding planning and designing.

“Hopefully, some of the beautiful weddings I’ve done here in the tri-state really allowed them to see kind of what we can do and what we can bring to the table,” O’Neal said. “I heard thousands of people applied, so I had no idea how hard it was to get one of these opportunities.”

Now that she’s back from the executive mansion, she’s making her own house look presidential for the holidays. She said it takes a lot of ribbons and ornaments to get your tree to look just as festive, but she said it doesn’t have to be expensive.

“I always say shop after the holidays, pick one thing, and build on it every year,” O’Neal said. “Get those sales when they’re 70 to 90% off.”

She said you can turn decorating into a Christmas craft with the kids.

“You can make a lot of this stuff, especially when it comes to kind of customizing your own look, when it comes to decor and ornaments, have your family involved, you know, start making that stuff early,” O’Neal said.

She said it might just take a little time and patience to get it all done, but it’s what got her to the White House, and what she said will be all worth it for the holidays.

“It was amazing, once and a lifetime for sure,” O’Neal said.