Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. With help from producer Raymond Rapada. Send tips | Subscribe here | Email Eli | Email Lauren Over the past week, hundreds of journalists and their guests drifted through the White House for holiday receptions, snapping pictures of the thousands of ornaments and holiday lights adorned throughout the building. They took selfies under the floating holiday candy display in the East Colonnade and chatted with senior Biden officials over cups of eggnog and glasses of champagne. They relished being able to float freely about the State Dining Room and the Blue Room (areas normally off-limits), all while stacking their dinner plates high with lamb chops, lobster claws, peppermint bark and coconut cake. The holiday season is a busy time for the White House. By the end of this year, President JOE BIDEN and first lady JILL BIDEN will have hosted around 30 holiday receptions, with nearly every White House team — from the communications shop to the Office of Legislative Affairs and Public Engagement — putting in weeks of work to pull off the events. Before the White House opened its gates to the first guests, more than 300 volunteers spent a week putting up decorations. Chefs tinkered with the holiday menu. And staffers had the thankless job of sifting through a deluge of invitation requests, revising the guest list until they hit capacity. They assigned people to man the gates and check-in tables and made plans to keep the run of show going smoothly so the president could wrap up on time. The biggest challenge is always the photo line, an exhausting custom for the president and first family as well as the staff responsible for holding guests’ bags and the awkward task of delicately encouraging guests to not linger too long by the president. We can only guess how many times press secretary KARINE JEAN-PIERRE and principal deputy press secretary OLIVIA DALTON said “thank you!!” while motioning toward the door back to the reception. After some internal West Wing deliberation about whether to offer a photo line at the media parties, the president and first lady ended up taking individual photos with reporters and their guests (a more personal offering than last year’s group photos) to the pleasant surprise of many attendees. It was truly a well-oiled machine (aside from the part where the announcer somehow managed to mispronounce this author’s last name, but we digress). West Wing Playbook estimates the whole thing took about 30 seconds from the time we got in line to when we shook hands with the first lady, got in position next to the president (who gave us a big grin and asked, “How ya doin?”), smiled for the photographer and got ushered out of the room by Jean-Pierre. Staffers said Biden was so committed to the photo line that he insisted on running well past the scheduled end time. As White House personnel directed guests toward the exits Wednesday evening, the president and first lady stayed in the Diplomatic Reception Room until the last reporter got her photo. WSJ’s SABRINA SIDDIQUI, always running late, had this year’s honor. According to the White House, the president and first lady took more than 700 photos between the two press parties. Each photo line lasted more than three hours. That’s a lot of smiling. And standing. And shaking hands. Frankly, we’d be exhausted. Our feet would certainly hurt. So, Biden press corps, maybe give it a beat before you start pestering the White House for your photo? It will come eventually and you will ’gram it. The world will continue to turn. MESSAGE US — Are you YEMISI EGBEWOLE, chief of staff for the press office and adviser to the press secretary? We want to hear from you. And we’ll keep you anonymous! Email us at westwingtips@politico.com. Did someone forward this email to you? Subscribe here!
| 
