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The old general didn’t stint with spirits for the help, either. A contract between Washington and his gardener, Philip Bater, provided that $4 was due Bater at the onset of the holidays “with which he may be drunk 4 days and 4 nights.”
Washington’s two terms as president kept him from Mount Vernon for eight Christmases. He and Martha still entertained, but it wasn’t on the same grand scale. The president noted of his Christmas visitors in 1789, they “were not numerous, but respectable.”
However, the couple did inaugurate the custom of public New Year receptions which continued until Woodrow Wilson’s administration, giving thousands upon thousands of ordinary folks the opportunity to shake hands with a president.
In his last holidays at Mount Vernon, Washington took to writing letters on Christmas Day, probably retiring to his study to escape the crush of guests at the mansion.
In 1798, his final Christmas, his diary records that General Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, Lady and daughter came to dinner and Captain John Spotswood visited in the afternoon.
George Washington died on Dec. 14 of the following year, and Christmas at Mount Vernon was spent in mourning.
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