During festive White House preparations, Laura Bush’s suspicion of Henry Hager over a missing decoration ended in embarrassment when the truth came out. .QN

Jenna Bush Hager shared the story of how her mom made the ‘false accusation’ against her then-fiancé, Henry Hager.

Henry Hager didn’t get on his future mother-in-law’s nice list from the jump.

Shortly before she married Hager in 2008, the former first daughter was staying with her parents President George W. Bush and first lady Laura Bush at the White House during Christmastime, the TV personality shared on the Wednesday Oct. 8 episode of Today with Jenna and Friends.

“I lived with my parents for a very brief period because I’d written a book and I was on book tour, and I was going to move in with Henry before we got married,” she explains.

Hager came to visit for the holiday, but received a less than warm welcome, according to Bush Hager.

“My mom came in — we may have been out the night before — and my mom came in and said, ‘Henry, I know what you did,’ ” Bush Hager recalled, adopting a stern voice. “And Henry’s like, ‘Oh my gosh.’ Like, my mom’s not very strict.”

She continues, imitating her mom’s accusation, “I know what you did. You took Joseph.”

A confused Henry just replied, “What?”

The White House staff had been packing up a nativity scene from the holiday decorations and hadn’t been able to locate the figure of Joseph.

“My mom thought Henry had come in after a couple beers and stolen Joseph,” Bush Hager said. “And he said, ‘On my word, I did not take Joseph, I promise you I didn’t.’ And my mom goes, ‘No, I know you did. I know you took Joseph.’ ”

Thankfully, Hager’s name was cleared when they found the piece “under a bureau somewhere,” with Bush Hager adding, “It was a false accusation.”

The couple went on to tie the knot in May 2008 and move in together, eventually have three children of their own.

Bush Hager blames her mother’s accusation on the tension created by having her 20-something daughter moving back into her home.

“What that said was, ‘Ya’ll gotta get out of here. I’m tired of you getting in late. You could have done something like stolen Joseph and I’m getting grumpy with your towels on the ground and such,’ ” Bush Hager mused of her parents.

Earlier this week, Bush Hager opened up about how her parents spoiled her engagement news by releasing a public statement before she had shared the news herself.

“We were at the airport in Boston, and we look up and on CNN. I guess my parents put out a statement,” she said on her show. “So I looked up and it was like, ‘Jenna Bush to be married,’ and I’m like, ‘Ah!’ I hadn’t told anybody.”