PRESIDENT BUSH is not accustomed to doing things by half-measures and if his Christmas card list is anything to go by he is not about to start.

During the past two weeks envelopes bearing a Crawford, Texas, postmark and a return address of the White House have been landing in mail boxes and on doormats at two million addresses.

Two million is some address book.

This year the President’s parents staged an 80th birthday party for Mr Bush Sr billed as including “more than 5,000 of their closest friends”.

Just how many of the two million are among the closest friends of the current First Couple is unclear. The White House said simply that the cards were going out to “friends, family and foreign dignitaries”.

So some of the recipients have even met one or both halves of the First Couple.

There are many trends and legacies for which future presidents may come to curse Mr Bush — the ballooning budget deficit, skyrocketing medical costs, costly and unwinnable wars and six-times-a-week exercise. But one of the most overlooked is Christmas card inflation.

In 2001, his first Christmas in office Mr Bush sent 875,000 cards. That was more than double the 400,000 mailed by the Clintons, who themselves presided over a White House that was not exactly ascetic.

A year later the Bushes broke the million mark. Why stop there? In 2003 they kept up the pace, sending 1.3 million. But they were just warming up.

By any measure, two million is a lot of cards. It is an increase of more than 50 per cent in a year and of 400 per cent in four years.

It is more than a thousandth of the 1.9 billion cards all Americans will send this year.

If Mr Bush had signed all of them personally, which he did not, he would have needed to start in late summer. This year, no doubt because of the numbers involved, not all of the cards carry a print of the presidential signature.

The card depicts a Matisse-like rendering of the White House Red Room by the Texas artist Cindi Holt, and inside bears the second verse of Psalm xcv: “Let us come before Him with thanksgiving and extol Him with music and song.”

This year’s presidential election is responsible for the latest increase.

The 1.4 million Republican volunteers who spent much of the year canvassing for support and turning out Mr Bush’s record vote on election day, even those in the most remote campaign offices in the most longshot states, have all received a card by way of a thank-you.

The cards, which are being paid for by the Republican National Committee and which are expected to cost towards $1 million (£520,000), are only one part of the extraordinary extravaganza that the White House puts on for Christmas.

One of the less-noted reasons that American presidents do so much jogging is because they need to be sufficiently fit to withstand the gruelling Christmas party schedule.

It involves 15 receptions of at least two hours each, sometimes twice a night, in which the highlight for guests is to have their picture taken with Mr and Mrs Bush.

This involves the First Couple standing for more than 30 hours, shaking 6,500 hands, and striking a perfect grinning pose 6,500 times.

There are parties for members of Congress, the Cabinet and the Secret Service, as well as the White House staff, Christmas volunteers and decorators. Together they will consume 15,000 lamb chops, 21,000lb of shrimp, 500 pieces of beef tenderloin and 200 fruit cakes.

It is a big occasion for Thaddeus DuBois, the new White House pastry chef, who has used 100lb of gingerbread in this year’s gingerbread house and is roughly halfway through making 24,000 cookies.

Decorators spend a month transforming the White House for the holiday season, this year using 41 Christmas trees and 150,000 lights. The decorations will be viewed by 40,000 members of the public.

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