WASHINGTON — It’s beginning to look a lot like…Washington. After years of trauma, the capital feels back to itself for Christmas.

The holiday ball for Congress just happened at the White House. The storied Willard Hotel, where Abraham Lincoln stayed days before he was inaugurated, revived the tradition of Christmas carols in the evening.

In Union Station, a magnificent tree, a gift from Norway, stands high. The Capitol tree, thanks to North Carolina, was lighted early this month.

These customs and rituals comfort and cheer a city that was under siege. They give ballast to putting the Jan. 6 armed attack on the Capitol and the pandemic behind us.

Then there was the formal state dinner for the French president, Emmanuel Macron, followed by the Kennedy Center Honors in the red velvet opera house. George Clooney and U2 were among the honorees, giving our town a dusting of glamor.

But it was the sight of Paul Pelosi, the injured husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, that brought down the house. He suffered head wounds from a night intruder in their San Francisco home.

The message he sent, with no words: political violence won’t win.

Paul Pelosi represented a victory for those walking wounded — and shut down by COVID-19 — not long ago.

By contrast, Donald and Melania Trump snubbed and skipped the black-tie Kennedy Center event during his White House years. It’s a celebration of art and music that helps to heal hard feelings and spread good will on a winter night.

A jagged shard of memory: Melania Trump chose blood-red trees for holiday decor one year, as if to foreshadow the deadly mob attack on the Capitol.

Hard feelings were what Trump’s reign was all about.

Yet his latest rage, calling to “terminate” the Constitution didn’t rock the boat much. Some Republican senators actually criticized his tirade.

Across America, Trump’s tantrums are becoming normalized as the madman or ogre in the attic. His power is on the wane. In addition, the Trump company was just found guilty of tax fraud.

Trump is not a leader of any party anymore, as shown by the defeat of his handpicked Senate candidate, football player Herschel Walker, in Georgia Tuesday.

Under the alabaster, Congress looks like its old self as it rushes to meet a looming deadline for finishing work. While hectic, the rumble feels familiar.

Scars on its spirit, visible last year, are submerged under the last-minute scramble of the 117th Congress.

Thank goodness.

The House is scheduled to vote on a marriage equality act that the Senate already approved, for same-sex and interracial couples.

A cinematic sideshow: Arizona Democrat and co-sponsor Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, dressed in a turquoise sequin skirt, sat next to poker-faced Republican leader Mitch McConnell during the vote.

The landmark bill, a shield for most of those unions, is certain to be signed by President Joe Biden.

Other pressing items are authorizing the national defense act (the massive Pentagon bill), raising the federal debt limit and keeping the government itself open.

The House and Senate may work nights and days until Christmas. That won’t hurt them. They’d like to end this session of Congress on a decisive high note, since it began on Jan. 6, 2021, when a fury of rioters made members of Congress run for their lives.

That means firmly putting that day in the past, in reports and remembrance.

The House committee probing the Jan. 6 attack will release a detailed report for the official record this month.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., hosted a gold medal ceremony (Tuesday) in the Rotunda for Capitol and Metropolitan police officers who defended democracy that day.

The city police chief, Robert J. Contee, noted scores of his 800 officers bear scars from the onslaught.

In the face of the mob’s sharp objects, bear spray, screams and smoke, Contee told the assembly, “You did not give up or give in.”

McConnell and Pelosi profusely thanked the sea of blue uniformed officers in the airy space: “Thank you for saving the country,” McConnell said.

Harry Dunn, a Black Capitol Police officer, wept at midnight in the Rotunda after the mob’s relentless storm of racism. Tuesday noon, he looked strong and smiling.

Merry Christmas.

Jamie Stiehm may be reached at JamieStiehm.com. Follow her on Twitter @JamieStiehm.

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