The White House Egg Roll 2024

Since 1878, American presidents and their families have celebrated Easter Monday by hosting an ‘egg roll’ party on the South Lawn of the White House.  In fact, it is one of the oldest annual events in White House history. Some historians note that First Lady Dolley Madison originally suggested the idea of a public egg roll, while others tell stories of informal egg-rolling parties at the White House dating back to President Abraham Lincoln’s administration.

The White House South Lawn would never have become home to America’s best-known Easter egg roll if Congress hadn’t first passed a fun-spoiling law that denied local children access to the most popular egg-rolling venue of the 1870s: Capitol Hill.  Andrew Johnson’s family started the trend when the Johnson grandchildren dyed eggs on Easter Sunday to roll the next day on the Capitol grounds. The trend caught on, and in the years that followed, the Easter Monday roll drew families for daylong picnics while “children rolled both their hard-boiled eggs and themselves down the lush green hills” of the Capitol lawn.

A particularly out of control roll in 1876 took a toll on the Capitol grounds, and Congress retaliated by passin ga law forbidding the grounds from being “used as a children’s playground,” starting in 1877.  The 1877 egg roll was rained out but President Hayes saved the day in 1878 by opening the White House grounds for the occasion.

A particularly out of control roll in 1876 took a toll on the Capitol grounds, and Congress retaliated by passin ga law forbidding the grounds from being “used as a children’s playground,” starting in 1877.  The 1877 egg roll was rained out but President Hayes saved the day in 1878 by opening the White House grounds for the occasion. The White House Egg Roll had arrived!

The games have changed over the years, from egg picking (hitting another hard-boiled egg with your own, hoping to crack the other egg without cracking yours) to egg croquet (in which hollowed eggshells are propelled through croquet hoops — very carefully — using fans). Today’s most popular event, the egg race, wasn’t introduced in 1974 by the Nixons. And while egg rolling may have fallen out of favor in general, the White House egg roll never has; in fact, it’s the largest annual event held at the White House.

These days, with demand outpacing lawn space, attendance is determined by lottery. But it has always drawn a diverse crowd, as an 1898 news report attests, proclaiming: “All sorts and conditions of children find their way to the president’s grounds to enjoy Easter Monday. Some of the children are beautifully dressed in silks and laces and have French nurses to watch over them and carry their eggs for them, while other little ones are dressed in very shabby garments with elbows out and toes peeping from their little shoes.”

The White House canceled the annual roll during both World War I and World War II, though Congress “permitted bygones to be bygones and agreed to host the event on Capitol Hill in 1942,” per History. Then, “post-war food rationing measures and the subsequent renovation of the White House under President Harry S. Truman resulted in further cancellations.” After a 12-year hiatus, President Dwight D. Eisenhower brought the tradition back to the Pennsylvania Ave lawn in 1953.

One thing that hasn’t changed, however, is the mess. What the Capitol groundskeepers refused to do, the White House lawn crew has down to a science, as TIME reported in 1953, when President Eisenhower revived the tradition 12 years after it was suspended for World War II.

“The Eisenhowers really didn’t know what to expect,” TIME wrote, “but the gardeners began a week in advance preparing for the worst, installing storm fences, comfort stations and drinking fountains.”

The egg roll itself turned the South Lawn into a child-sized war zone that would take weeks to clean up, the story added: “By noon, the grounds were a dreadful mass of mashed eggs, gooey chocolate marshmallow, melting jelly beans and picnic midden. Most unexpected casualty: a press photographer lost both shoes.”

In addition to the time-honored traditions of rolling and hunting eggs, this year’s White House Easter “EGGucation” Roll will also feature a School House Activity Area, Reading Nook, Field Trip to the Farm, Picture Day, a Physical “EGGucation” Zone, a Snack Time Tent and more.   In total, approximately 40,000 people will take part in this year’s Easter “EGGucation” Roll, including thousands of military and veteran families, caregivers, and survivors. Tickets for the general public were distributed to guests from all across the country through an online public lottery.