The White House Historical Society puts out an annual ornament and they are always beautifully done. This year's is a departure from the style of years past. It is a loco and tender honoring Warren G. Harding who was quite a train fan in his day. You can see the ornament on the cover of this year's catalog. The passenger car is a separate sale item. They are only $18.95. I have no stake whatever in this item. I buy the annual ornament in quantity to give to the many teachers and staff of my special needs kids. As an added bonus these are made in the US of A.
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Thank you for posting this.
I also will buy several...
J White
Very nice ornament for the Christmas Tree. The White House belongs to all of us, so there should be nothing political about this.
Thanks for starting this thread.
Does the train represent a particular event or is it identified with a particular rail line? I like the fact it is made in the US and the price is fair too.
Pennsydave et al, according to the catalog copy, President Harding loved trains as a child and ran one for 51 minutes as President. The loco is a replica of the Presidential Special. The passenger car is a replica of the President's heavy weight Pullman car. This is the first time I have gotten a catalog from WHHA despite buying their ornaments for many years. The catalog is full of neat White House type things, many made in USA.
Just for the sake of saying it, the price of $18.95 was only if you bought 100 or more. They are $23.95 for less than 10, and $22.95 for 11 to 99. I know you said you bought them in quantity though, but I assume not that many.
J White
Not sure where you read that, j white, but they are $18.95 with free shipping if you buy less than 25 ornaments. If you buy 25-99, the price is $17.25 each and if you buy 100 or more, the price is $15.50 each. I usually buy about a dozen. Sales tax applies to Maryland residents.
Do you have a link to the site or if a link is not allowed, maybe the text of the site not linked?
Pennsydave et al, according to the catalog copy, President Harding loved trains as a child and ran one for 51 minutes as President.
President Harding operated a Milwaukee Road Westinghouse passenger motor on his trip to Alaska.
These ornaments are made by Chem Art Co. in Rhode Island. They have also made an annual ornament for Danbury Mint since 1976...all made in USA. A very fine company too.
Thanks Mike
Very handsome ornament. If not for the fact that I have way too many Christmas ornaments already, I would probably buy one. (I may still succumb to weakness and get one anyway ).
-Dave
J White, the higher price is from a retail shop, not the Whitehouse Historical Organization.
Just ordered a set for our tree...this looks like it will be a wonderful ornament.
It is a nice ornament. To play devil's advocate (and I am not being political just accurate) I am surprised that the theme is not the bicentennial of the British burning the White House and Capital in the War of 1812 that happened 200 years ago last week. This does seem more a more relevant subject for the White House Historic society to cover.
Indybryan,
Thanks for pointing that out to me. You just saved me a few bucks. I was looking at whitehousehollidays.com, which was the first hit on Google.
J White
Silver Lake, the annual ornament theme is the men who occupied the White House as President, not a particular day in the life of the White House. It's a good idea though. If those walls could talk...
Im going to pick mine up today from the ITT on the base where I work.
Sunrise
USPS got to me. It cost me $24.99 to buy mine on line when I bought Christmas stamps.
If anyone else was still considering one of these, I just picked up the pair (engine and obs car, as shown in this post) at my local Post Office.
So there still may be time without having to figure in shipping time if you want one.
I'll agree with many of the other posts that they seem nicely done.
The boxed pair was $24.99.
-Dave
Nice Christmas ornament!
The reason this is a train ord is that as I am a "contributor"; so I asked Barry personally for a WH "train themed ord" and his wife said ok.
Yes, they are selling these at the local post office. They had a display of them by each window there at my p.o. I was tempted but passed on one.