Sawt Falasteen - White House gets scaled-down Christmas display amid ballroom work

The 55-year-old's theme for the season was "Home is Where the Heart Is," despite the fact that she spends relatively little time in Washington, preferring New York and Florida.

Decorations featured a giant Lego portrait of her 79-year-old husband, a huge gingerbread White House, thousands of decorative butterflies, and more than 50 Christmas trees in the first holiday season of the president's second term.

"Home is not merely a physical space; rather, it is the warmth and comfort I carry within, regardless of my surroundings," Melania Trump said in a statement released by the White House.

But the actual physical space available at the White House for the Christmas decorations is smaller this year.

In previous years many of the most dramatic displays have traditionally been in the East Wing, where the first lady's offices were based and guests to the White House entered for seasonal events.

The East Wing has now been reduced to rubble to make way for Donald Trump's $300 million ballroom, with workers knocking down some of the final bricks on Monday, an AFP photographer saw.

So this year's Christmas decorations are all in the main mansion of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

The centerpiece this year is the 18-foot (5.5-meter) tree in the White House Blue Room, a concolor fir from the state of Michigan which features gold stars to commemorate the families of fallen US service members.

The decorations also include accents in red, white and blue to mark next year's 250th anniversary of American independence, and baubles for Melania Trump's "Be Best" education initiative.

President Trump himself meanwhile showed that he was in no hurry to celebrate his last Christmas in the White House anytime soon. His second term is due to end in 2029.

"We have a little more than three years left, and three years for Trump is an eternity," Trump told guests at a Christmas party, in a video shared by a White House official.

U.Shaheen--SF-PST