White Christmas At White House

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas everywhere, even at the White House, where holiday decorations are being officially unveiled Thursday.

The lady of the house, first lady Laura Bush, gave CBS News White House correspondent Bill Plante a special tour.

She told him that her mother is already at the executive mansion, helping her to prepare for the holiays, and that she and President Bush plan to have his parents, his sister and a few of his brothers and their families join them in Washington for Christmas.

"We like to have tamales on Christmas eve and open our presents on Christmas morning," she said, acknowledging that "there is a lot of division in the United States over whether you open your presents on Christmas eve or Christmas morning."

The theme of this year's decorations is American holiday songs that have entertained families for years: "White Christmas," "Frosty The Snowman," "A Marshmallow World" and "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," among others.

"These are songs that both George and I used to love when we were little and we sang them with our children," Mrs. Bush said.

As a result, all 41 trees in the mansion are decorated in white with musical ornaments painted by the Decorative Art Society of the United States. The decorations also include an 18th century Italian crèche that was given to the White House in 1967 and has been displayed ever since.

There also is the usual gingerbread house, created for the first time this year by the White House's new pastry chef.

Mrs. Bush said her Christmas wish for the country is peace, especially peace in Iraq.

"I know our troops are deployed there and that one reason there's going to be some of them there through the Christmas holidays is because we want the Iraqis to be able to have a free and fair elections," she said. "We watched in Afghanistan as the people of Afghanistan lined up to vote and we want the same thing for the people of Iraq. So I say to all those families that all Americans really understand the special burden that's on military families."