One thing I wish I did more was stray off the path of politics every once in a while. Well, here ya go. It seems this year’s White House Christmas theme is “Holiday in the National Parks”.

The crispy steak fingers, served with creamed pan drippings, are just one item on a menu of treats from across America that will be sampled by an estimated 20,000 people at the White House this holiday season. The decorations, including 862 feet of garland, also reflect the nation from coast to coast to go with the theme, “Holiday in the National Parks.”

“The national parks are represented all over the White House, from the east entrance, when you’re greeted with Cape Hatteras Lighthouse from North Carolina,” Mrs. Bush said Thursday during a preview tour of the decorations. “You walk on in, you see the fabulous gold leaves of the aspens from the Appalachian Trail. … When you come upstairs in the Cross Hall, you’re met with that very famous Statue of Liberty.”

In a run-up to the National Park Service’s centennial in 2016, there are paintings of Hopi Point in Arizona’s Grand Canyon National Park and a waterfall rushing into the Virgin River in Utah’s Zion National Park. Downstairs, a terra cotta model of Mount Rushmore sits under a portrait of former first lady Barbara Bush.

Photos that normally hang in the East Wing have been replaced with photos of presidents visiting national parks. There’s President Eisenhower walking out of Lincoln’s birthplace in Kentucky in 1954 and President Kennedy visiting the Liberty Bell in the 1960s.

This year’s indoor White House official Christmas tree is 18 feet tall, featuring ornaments decorated by artists from 350 national parks, sea shores and monuments.

And if you thought you started early, the White House staff began right after Labor Day. Over 20,000 Christmas cookies, 700 cakes, 600 pounds of asparagus and 320 gallons of eggnog.

Along with the chicken-fried steak, there are 10,000 tamales; cheeses from Vermont and New York; 1,000 pounds of steamed shrimp from the Gulf; fresh salmon from Maine; Virginia ham; Maryland crab cakes; lamb; cheesy grits; and orzo salad.

Still hungry? Desserts include cakes, truffles, bread pudding, cherry cobbler and iced cookies in the shape of animals and tree leaves found in the national parks.

At the far end of the State Dining Room sits the traditional gingerbread house, a replica of the White House built with gingerbread and more than 300 pounds of white chocolate.

Replicas of the President’s dogs, Barney and Miss Beazly, are sitting in a sleigh on top of the gingerbread house.