Cheer up! President Joe Biden wants you to forget about inflation, supply chain shortages, the migrant crisis on the southern border, vaccine mandates, and outbreaks of civil disorder. Instead he is ready to celebrate a first Christmas in the White House and wants everyone to feel the love when he reveals “Gifts from the Heart” as the theme for his Yuletide season.
AP reports First lady Jill Biden will personally unveil decorations matching the theme on Monday, said to be inspired by people the couple met as they traveled the country this year.
“The things we hold sacred unite us and transcend distance, time, and even the constraints of a pandemic: faith, family, and friendship; a love of the arts, learning, and nature; gratitude, service, and community; unity and peace,” the Bidens write in a commemorative 2021 White House holiday guidebook.
“These are the gifts that tie together the heart strings of our lives. These are the gifts from the heart.”
The decor features a gigantic gingerbread White House that recognizes front-line workers who persevered through the coronavirus pandemic, while the official Christmas tree — an 18-foot-tall (5.5-meter tall) Fraser fir — celebrates the gifts of peace and unity, the AP report outlined.
First lady Jill Biden speaks briefly to reporters as she receives the official White House Christmas Tree on the North Portico of the White House on November 22, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
First Lady Jill Biden (L) gives a sprig of the White House Christmas Tree to her grandson Beau Biden jr. (R) as his father Hunter Biden (2nd R) holds him at the White House in Washington, DC, on November 22, 2021, during the arrival of the tree. (JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)
The Bidens are spending Thanksgiving week in Nantucket, Massachusetts, so more than 100 volunteers have been called upon to decorate the executive mansion — including the Oval Office — with 41 Christmas trees, some 6,000 feet (2,000 yards) of ribbon and more than 10,000 ornaments.
“As we celebrate our first holiday season in the White House, we are inspired by the Americans we have met across the country, time and again reminding us that our differences are precious and our similarities infinite,” the Bidens wrote in their message.
“We wish you a happy, healthy, and joyous holiday season. As we look to a new year full of possibility, may gifts from the heart light our path forward.”
Even as the couple bless the nation and deliver their seasonal greetings, others are finding a lot less to cheer them.
As Breitbart News reported, a CBS/YouGov poll published November 21 shows Americans are feeling the effects of Biden’s struggling economy and they’re not happy about it.
The poll registered Biden’s overall job approval rating at 44 percent, as the majority of respondents disapprove of Biden’s performance at 56 percent. Eighty percent of Democrats approve of Biden’s handling of the presidency, while just five percent of Republicans approve.
Of independents, 39 percent approve of the president’s performance, and 61 percent disapprove.
In looking at Biden’s handling of inflation, 33 percent of total respondents approve, and 67 percent disapprove, all of which combines to devastate the president’s overall approval ratings at the end of his first year in office.
American’s are feeling pain in their wallets even as the White House offers Christmas cheer and the Biden family assumes the role of happiness vendors at a time of economic strife.
The tradition of the White House Christmas tree as will be officially unveiled Monday goes back 56 years to 1965 when Lady Bird Johnson was first lady.
The 2021 National Christmas Tree Lighting Festivities, which will include a live audience and performances by Patti LaBelle, Billy Porter, Chris Stapleton and others, TMZ reported.
AP contributed to this report
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