Plan in advance for tickets to tour the White House

If you want to see the White House decorated for Christmas in the first year of the Barack Obama administration, you might already be too late.

Christmas is one of the more popular times to tour the home of the president. With requests accepted up to six months in advance, tour slots fill fast. The White House puts the tour list together on a first-come, first-served basis, and you won't know whether you have tickets until about three weeks before the tour.

So, if you want to see the White House in its spring glory, now is the time to pick some dates and put in a request.

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Until the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, White House visitors could get in line early in the morning to snag same-day tour tickets. Advance reservations also were available through congressional offices.

Since the attacks, every visitor has been required to request tickets in advance through the office of a member of the House of Representatives or Senate.

Last year, the office of Rep. Eric I. Cantor, R-7th, submitted nearly 350 tour requests, said Brittany Richman, who handles the requests. This year, she has submitted requests for 389 tours, including more than 90 so far for December tours. Last year, more than 150 groups requested a total of 2,300 tickets for December, and about 90 groups received a total of about 1,500 tickets, she said.

The office realized last year that ticket requests for popular dates need to be submitted at the earliest possible moment. "Even a week later was sometimes too late," Richman said.

Some of the groups submitting early requests this year are ones that didn't get tickets last year, she said. On the eve of June 1, when the December dates opened up, Richman stayed up late so requests could go in at 12:01 a.m. on the first day of availability for Christmas tours.

In addition to requesting tickets early, visitors should list several possible tour dates, she said. The White House often is closed when the president has a major event scheduled.

Ticket requests must be made at least a month in advance. Occasionally a small group can get lucky because 10 is the minimum number of tickets to request, she said. If two small groups request the same day, and only one request is granted, the two groups might be able to combine.

When a tour is approved, an e-mail from the White House gives the date and time. At that point, Richman contacts the group to get personal information on each visitor for security approval. She said she has never had anyone turned down.

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Hours for White House tours are typically 7:30 to 11 a.m. Tuesday through Thursday, 7:30 a.m. to noon on Friday and 7:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday.

When Obama was on vacation with his family this summer, tour hours were extended to 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. For the first time since 9/11, everyone who made a request for tickets got tickets, according to a White House representative.

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Don't expect a guided tour. Visitors file through the house in a long line, referring to a pamphlet that describes the rooms they see.

One room newly opened to the public by the Obamas is the China Room, which displays the official china that first ladies have chosen over the years.

Other highlights include the Blue Room, an oval-shaped room where the president often receives guests. The only president to be married in the White House, Grover Cleveland, chose the Blue Room in 1886 to take his vows to Frances Folsom, who at 21 was the youngest first lady in history.

The large, sparsely furnished East Room has been used as everything from a laundry room by Abigail Adams to a theater for live performances while Jacqueline Kennedy was first lady. Obama held a televised town-hall meeting there in June. The room also has had a role in mourning national tragedies. The bodies of assassinated presidents John F. Kennedy and Abraham Lincoln lay in state in the East Room.

The State Dining Room got a major transformation when Theodore Roosevelt remodeled the White House in 1902 to make room for his six children. As part of the renovation, architects removed a staircase, expanding the capacity of the room from 40 guests to 140.

The Green Room is where President James Madison signed the nation's first declaration of war - against Britain in the War of 1812.

The Red Room wasn't red when Dolley Madison held her Wednesday Drawing Rooms there in 1809 to bring together fierce political foes for socializing. By 1840, the vivid color scheme was in place along with its name.

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The White House is a national park - President's Park - which also includes the White House grounds, Lafayette Square, the Ellipse and the White House Visitors Center. Even if tickets to the White House are unavailable, the visitors center at 15th and E streets offers a glimpse of what's inside. The visitors center is open seven days a week from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. In 2008, the visitors center counted 556,627 visitors, said Bill Line, Park Service spokesman. The number of people touring the White House itself wasn't available.

Other than the political staff, people who work at the White House work for the National Park Service. That includes groundskeepers, gardeners, maintenance workers, curators, chefs and ushers, Line said.

If a new president requests redecoration of the private quarters, the National Park Service is the agency that arranges the work.

"I wouldn't say there are massive redecorating schemes," Line said. "The carpeting can be changed. The paint can change. But walls moved? That's a whole different story."

Contact Katherine Calos at (804) 649-6433 or .