we've got the latest on what you n need to know. president biden is now reversing a controversial policy originally meant to slow the spread. we'll speak with the leading democratic member of congress about the move. plus -- do you have a real christmas tree or are you team artificial? we're breaking down the numbers from gifts to movies to get a different view of america's holiday traditions. we start this hour with the hottest item to get this christmas eve 2021. it's not a tickle-me-elmo, not an a furbie. this year it's a covid test and in cities nationwide upeople are lining up to get their hands on one. many drivers in this line waited more than two hours at a drive-through testing site in raleigh, north carolina. scenes like this one playing out across the country as covid cases in the united states skyrocket almost 50% in a week. hitting the highest seven-day average since january. that trend fortunately has not been as sharp when it comes to hospitalizations. that number only up 2% in a week. and that adds to evidence that the omicron variant may not result in more severe cases of covid-19. however, that, obviously, doesn't mean it's not highly contagious and health officials are warning the recent spike in cases will only get worse. the cdc is now changing the isolation time for health care workers who get sick, too. and as lucy kafanov reports, today in new york, there was a similar change. >> yes, we're here to make some toys. >> reporter: christmas cheer tempered this year as omicron spreads at a rapid pace with new covid cases hitting record highs. the u.s. now averaging more than 180,000 new cases each day. up 48% from last week, surpassing the peak of the delta variant surge in the summer. the good news, hospitalizations remain half the record high from january. amid the omicron surge, the cdc cutting quarantine time for infected health care workers. those who test pos itive but ar asoimpt attic can return after seven days with a test. >> it's a decision that's been made necessary by the fact that the virus is spiraling out of control. it does follow the science that it's seven days, but you have to test negative. you dont need to be isolated for a full ten days. >> reporter: new york is following the cdc lead with the governor there saying essential workers who are fully vaccinated can return to work five days after showing no symptoms and have had no fever for 72 hours. as santa delivers gifts to households around the world, americans flying to see loved ones are facing a bumpy travel day. airlines canceling hundreds of flights on christmas eve as staff and crew call out sick. >> i hope that everyone keeps their own safety and everyone else's safety in mind when they travel. >> in a rush to get tested, be prepared to wait. >> everybody wanted to get tested so, you know, we just have to be patient. >> with at-home covid test supplies still limited, many testing sites are overwhelmed. but across the pond, a sliver of hope. the united kingdom health agency says data suggests omicron cases are 50% to 70% less likely to require hospitalization than those with delta. boris, even though the cdc is cutting the quarantine time for covid positive, asymptomatic health care workers and the state of new york is following suit with its essential employees, president joe biden told reporters this afternoon that there are no plans to cut the isolation time for the general public. boris? >> lucy kafanov reporting from santa monica, california, thank you so much. let's pose that question about quarantine times with dr. peter hotez. thanks for sharing part of your christmas eve with us. we always appreciate your expertise. with these changes on quarantine restrictions, today the governor of new york, kathy hochul said fully vaccinated essential workers can return to work after five days if they have no symptoms. i want you to listen to the governor. >> mainly focused on making sure we can get people back to work so these critical services that new yorkers need, health care, transportation, grocery stores, all the things we've identified are important, that they can get back to work as soon as it is safe to do so. vaccinated, wearing a mask, asymptomatic. >> in addition, as lucy discussed in her report, the cdc recommending a seven-day isolation for health care workers who get sick. why does the change only apply to these specific groups. couldn't the new isolation time be extended to everyone? >> well, boris, in time it might be, but i think this is important. if the cdc and the local health departments are prepared to study the outcomes and can confirm that we're not seeing a lot of individuals coming back to work and shedding virus, i think that potentially could result in a more universal change. now the problem is it's not easy to know. here's why because what -- even if you aren't shedding virus after you've been infected for a few days and you've recovered, you can still be pcr positive. so there's still remnants of the viral genome there. sometimes it's hard to sort out who's pcr positive on the test because they're shedding virus versus you just have remnants of nucleic acid. it requires more in-depth study to sort those two things ot. the reason for the change now is because there's a lot of concern with all of these omicron cases, there's going to be massive disruption of social services if you have all of the essential workers out of the workforce. the most worrisome are the health care workers, the hospital workers especially because we know hospitalizations are rising in new york. they are rising in new jersey. they are rising in washington, d.c. some of the worst affected areas. so the narrative about this being a mild virus, i think we have to temper that with that reality and the situation in the u.s. may be different. so what everyone is wringing their hands about or what keeps me up at night is that perfect storm that, in fact, this virus is not as mild as many are making it out to be. hospitalizations are rising and all the health care workers, even if they've had three immunizations have breakthrough, symptomatic illness and are out of the workforce. >> you did propose in the l.a. times a potential fourth dose of the vaccine. i want to ask you about that. i want to press you on the idea the everyday person has to follow different rules than these health care workers. it seems antithetical and frustrating to someone watching cases going up, the new variant that's highly contagious but health officials now lowering isolation times. what would you say to someone that perhaps is missing christmas with their loved ones because they have to comply by rules that others seemingly don't? >> yeah, you know, it's a study in progress, and i don't know the inside baseball and in terms of what the white house and the cdc and nih were discussing when they made the change. i think they probably would have liked more time in order to make these adjustments but i think their hands were -- they had to make a quick decision in order to keep the health care workforce in play. so all i can say, it's important to be patient. let's see how these new guidelines work out and make certain there's nothing untoward that happens and then it's quite possible this will open up to the general public later on. >> yeah. so let's talk about that op-ed in the "l.a. times." you floated the idea of a fourth vaccine dose for health care workers. dr. fauci disagrees. he believes that may be a premature move. what's the basis of the disagreement? >> it's interesting after i made the suggestion, the israeli government came up with the -- came up with the same idea. i can't say i had going to do with it, but it is interesting. here's the rationale for this, boris. it's based on data coming out of imperial college london and the uk government suggesting that protection from that third immunization, if you got the pfizer vaccine, because that's the major vaccine they use in the uk and israel, comes down pretty quickly. after you get that third immunization you get a big boost in virus neutralizing antibodies. that gives you 90%, 95 protection against dealta. only 75% protection against omicron, but that's the best case scenario because then in the ensuing three or four months it declines to 30% or 40% against symptomatic infection. you are going to have all of these health care providers who got the pfizer boost, will have the waning immunity. how do we keep them in the workforce? the most efficient way is to boost up their virus neutralizing antibodies to keep them in the workforce during this wave. >> we'll see how the cdc may or may not respond. dr. peter hotez, thank you for the time. hope you have a good holiday. >> thank you. all the best. next, president biden just adjusted his response to the omicron variant. hear how the white house is explaining the shift. plus, some communities in kentucky are still reeling from deadly tornadoes. we're going to talk to someone who is lending a helping hand to those who need it this christmas. we'll be right back. the holidays are in full swing and you can feel the magic in the air. especially at t-mobile! let's go to dianne. can you tell us what's happening? yeah, i got the awesome new iphone 13 pro and airpods, and t-mobile is paying for them both! oooh and i get a free year of apple tv+. upgrade to the iphone 13 pro and airpods both on us. only at t-mobile. and this is for new and existing t-mobile and sprint customers. like me! back to you. uh, hello!? we are going to t-mobile! this is your home. this is your family room slash gym. the guest bedroom slash music studio. the daybed slash dog bed. the living room slash yoga shanti slash regional office slash classroom. and this is the basement slash panic room. maybe what your family needs is a vacation home slash vacation home. find yours on the vrbo app. ♪ with mucinex all-in-one you've got powerful relief from your worst cold and flu symptoms. so when you need to show your cold who's boss, grab mucinex all-in-one... and get back to your rhythm. ♪ the relief you need. the cash you want. here in washington, president biden has been on the move this christmas eve. he and the first lady paying a visit to the children's national hospital. the president also decided to make it easier for some people to travel, and as cnn's jeremy diamond reports, that's despite skyrocketing coronavirus cases. >> reporter: call it a christmas eve gift from the president. president biden lifting travel restrictions he imposed just one month ago barring entry to foreigners from south africa and seven surrounding countries. >> while we know the travel restrictions can slow the spread of omicron, it cannot prevent it. but it does give us a little more time to take more precautions at home to prepare. >> reporter: with omicron rampant in the u.s. and around the world, a senior administration official telling cnn the cdc recommended biden lift the travel ban because travelers from southern africa won't have a significant impact on u.s. cases and because it's now clear existing vaccines prevent severe illness with omicron. the restrictions officially come down on new year's eve. in the u.s., many americans waiting in line for hours to get tested as coronavirus cases skyrocket before christmas. >> keep the faith. >> the president and first lady spending their christmas eve at children's national hospital. before taking calls from children tracking santa claus' journey around the world. biden's own christmas wish list will have to wait until next year after senator joe manchin killed biden's hopes of passing his build back better bill before the holidays. >> i haven't given up on this. i haven't given up on it. and i still think we'll be able to get a significant amount of what we need to get done, done. >> reporter: while the president's legislative agenda is on pause for the holidays, that work will resume in the new year. the president set to push forward to get as much as he can of that build back better agenda done as well as a push for voting rights. but really a path to getting either of those bills done is very unclear right now. boris? >> nebulous at best. jeremy diamond from the white house, thank you. let's discuss. the biden agenda and the latest moves on coronavirus with florida democratic congresswoman debbie wasserman schultz. thank you for taking time out of this holiday weekend to chat with us. we appreciate it. first, president biden lifting the travel ban that he imposed on eight southern african countries because of the omicron variant. given that we're now seeing a spike of omicron cases here, was this a good idea? >> i think we have to strike a balance with travel bans when -- like when president biden first imposed that ban about a month ago. it was really to make sure, not that we prevent covid from coming here from south africa, but to make sure that our public health system can stay ahead of it. and the cdc seems to be comfortable that we are ahead of it in terms of it really intensifying through travel. so, obviously, we're a country that supports freedom of movement and so making sure that we strike that bralance, i thin, is the right move. >> the biden administration has been receiving a lot of criticism for covid testing issues across the country. the president told abc news he doesn't think the testing situation is a failure, yet we shared with our viewers at the top of the hour video from lines that are hours long just to get tested. ultimately who do you think should be held accountable for the apparent shortage of tests in this country. >> in my state, the person that should be held accountable is ron desantis, our governor, because there's no one else in the entire united states that i think has done more to make it harder to keep people healthy than ron desantis. he has led the effort to pass laws in our state capitol to prevent people from being required to wear masks, to prevent businesses from requiring vaccines for employees. he's withheld funds from school districts because they wanted to make sure that they could require students to wear masks so they could keep children safe who at the time couldn't get vaccinated themselves. so when it comes to the effort to make sure that we can really prevent the spread, we have to make sure that we are maximizing our local government's ability to establish public health practices. so that's why i think the effort begins and, of course, we need to make sure that we ramp up testing as quickly as possible. and i think we'll have to provide some additional resources from congress through an emergency supplemental to be able to assist with that. >> though the testing shortage doesn't end at florida's border. this is a nationwide issue. doesn't the federal government have some responsibility for the lack of tests? >> certainly the federal government has a responsibility and we need to make sure that we, as president biden responsibly did, he enacted the order of half a billion tests that, obviously, will take a few weeks to arrive. but making sure that we can continue that pipeline is going to be the responsibility of an all-hands-on-deck of the. it's not one branch of the government. we're talking about a global pandemic that we've been dealing with for almost two years. and any kink in the chain is going to gum up the works. so making sure that all levels of government are working together efficiently to be able to make sure that tests can be administered. governor desantis has essentially stopped promoting vaccines and done everything he could to prevent people and make it harder to ensure that we have the maximum number of people in florida vaccinated. and, in fact, we have had a very low number of seniors in nursing homes and assisted living facilities getting their booster shot when we really led the effort initially. and that's going to kill people at the end of the day. so it's not just one thing and one person that's responsible for making sure we attack this. it's an all hands on deck effort. >> are you suggesting that governor desantis is specifically trying to keep older folks from getting boosted? >> i'm suggesting that he's not lifting a finger to help make sure that older folks in nursing homes and assisted living are getting boosted because he has not engaged -- he hasn't reached out to the va, for example, which through their fourth mission can deploy health care professionals to help make sure we can get boostered administered in those facilities. he hasn'tactually mobilized an effort to make sure. why? we have the highest percentage of elderly in our state and know that the elderly when they get covid are much lessmore likely get a serious case and die. why would the governor of the third largest state in the country with the highest percentage of elderly in the country, the most vulnerable population, be putting obstacles in the path of people getting vaccinated. >> congresswoman, i quickly wanted to get in a question about the president's agenda going into ths the new year. an election year where democrats are anticipated to have some losses potentially in the house because of historical trends. you've said you're disappointed in senator manchin's opposition to the build back better act. democrats ultimately need his vote to do anything going forward. should democrats ultimately pass wharf he agrees with? >> what we need to do is make sure that we do what congresses of the past have always done. you regroup. focus on what we can put on president biden's desk and the question isn't what joe manchin will support. it's why won't every single republican support making sure we can take on big pharma, lower prescription drug costs, make sure we make the wealthy and big corporations pay their fair share. we're trying to pass this without a single republican vote. we're going to put a bill on joe biden's desk. i'm confident. but it's going to be done single handedly by democrats and whatever we put, whether it's making sure we make childcare more affordable or lowering prescription drug costs, providing hearing coverage in medicare for seniors, it's going to be done by democrats and we'll come together. even if it's a smaller vote. i want to vote to put as much assistance for people who need help on president biden's desk and that's what we're goingigen do. >> we'll thebe there to ask you about it. thank you for the time. we appreciate it. >> happy holidays, everyone. thank you, boris. coming up -- the stunning statement one caller made to president biden today as he took holiday calls from americans. we'll show you, next. and along the ride, you'll have many questions. challenges. and a few surprises. ♪ but wherever you are on your journey. your dell technologies advisor is here for you - with the right tech solutions. so you can stop at nothing for your customers. -fixed. -that's my son. he always takes care of his mama. ooh, what's up with granny's casserole? 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(soft music) ♪ there's no better gift than the gift of good health. donald trump is trying to persuade the unconvinced to get vaccinated. let's discuss that more with cnn political analyst margaret talive and ron brownstein. appreciate you being with us this christmas eve. let's get to the juiciest bit of sound from this donald trump interview with the daily wire and candace owen, the former president talking about the vaccine. >> all are very, very good. came up with three of them in less than nine months. and it was supposed to take 5 to 12 years. >> more people have died under covid this year, by the way, under joe biden. >> that's right. >> than under you and more people took the vaccine this year so people are questioning how -- >> no, the vaccine work bud some people aren't -- >> the ones that get very sick and go to the hospital are the ones that don't take the vaccine. but it's still their choice. and if you take the vaccine, you're protected. people aren't dying when they take the vaccine. >> that point she made about people dying under donald trump versus joe biden, that's fake news right there. secondly it's very juicy because candice owen has been peddling anti-vaccine nonsense online and to watch her face when the president says what we know is true, vaccines are effective. why is the former president taking this stance now? what is up with the timing? >> it's never too late to do the right thing, but the former president waited until the concrete had really hardened among his base and the republican coalition more broadly. the numbers are unbelievable. the kaiser family foundation polling, over 90% of democrats are vaccinated. over 60% of -- only 60% of republicans are vaccinated. the share of vaccinated republicans who say they're going to get boosted is far lower than the share of vaccinated democrats. the death rate is triple in the most trump friendly counties as in the most biden friendly counties. the former president is making what is a pretty obvious political pivot that he wants to take credit for the original development of the vaccines which he can. and i think he is putting himself in a position to argue at some point in the road that we gave the biden administration everything we needed to handle this and then they fumbled the ball. i think you can argue that it is highly unlikely that we'll see 240 million separate people have gotten at least one shot. that required a big mobilization of every asset the federal government has. aggressive use of federal power. hard to imagine we'd have seen anything like that under a trump presidency. >> margaret, ron seems to insinuate that donald trump is planting seeds for something potentially in the future, right? i want to read something very quickly from cnn's zach wolf. there are things former president trump wants to talk about like vaccines and things he'd rather keep quiet like what exactly happened in the white house leading up to january 6th. it's not going to be possible for trump to avoid talking about january 6th if he decides to run in 2024. so he's clearly going to lean into it. >> well, you know, i think you're right to note the narrative shift because the former president is good at two things and one is sort of trying to reset, reposition a narrative and the other is to change the subject. he has reason to do both right now. joe biden is really facing the consequences now of the pandemic being prolonged, of the delta variant lasting longer. of omicron now. and the former president sees an opportunity to claim -- to try to blame the duration of the pandemic on joe biden. he has to reposition his own role as well. you'll note he's not talking -- he's still not telling people, you should take this vaccine. this vaccine will save your life. he's saying the vaccine saves lives. it's up to you to take it. so even now it's a strategy that seems to combine an understanding of his base's real reluctancy. this ongoing poll with ipsos on measuring how americans perceive and are affected by the coronavirus and we took a year-end look at '21 comparing how the unvaccinated and the vaccinated behave and have experienced the virus and we learned two really interesting things. and one is that trust among unvaccinated americans plummeted between the first half of the year and second half. the people who are still unvaccinated, like don't trust the government at all. unvaccinated americans, 15% trust in the government at this moment. but the other thing that we learned from this data is that the way unvaccinated republicans and unvaccinated black americans are behaving, along with their decision to be unvaccinated is completely different. and this goes to that messaging. it really, really does. black americans overwhelmingly wearing masks, practicing social distancing, taking precautions because they take the virus seriously. republican unvaccinated americans very, very low mask use. very little in the way of social distancing. so it is about social cues. and donald trump, i think, is trying to change the way he's viewed. but he really helped drive unvaccinated white americans into the position they're in. >> right. >> the concrete is set pretty hard. >> it is, sadly. and you pointed it out with some of the numbers. let's talk about what happened today with joe biden and jill biden visiting children's national medical center in washington. he spoke with kids around the country as part of a santa tracker event. and one specific phone call, a father of four named jerod made it awkward and political and just listen to this. >> by the way, you guys have to be in bed by 9:00, you know, and asleep between 9:00 and 12:00 or he doesn't show up. >> this isn't to you, jerod, this is to the kids. >> that's right. >> i hope you have a wonderful christmas. >> yeah, i hope you guys have a wonderful christmas as well. >> thank you. >> merry christmas and let's go, brandon. >> i agree. >> let's go brandon for those who don't know is slang for "f" joe biden. ron, the president is trying to be nice to kids. he doesn't really have to do this. they were very pleasant. what does it tell you that somebody is rude like that and disrespectful to the president to his face about the political climate in this country. >> look, it's ungracious. it's juvenile. it's reprehensible by the father, but i don't think it's fundamentally about incivility. it's about insurrection. i don't know the individual, but the whole let's go brandon kind of motif is a reflection of the view two-thirds of the republican base driven by trump's claims, false claims and the big lie that biden is an illegitimate president and it reflects the findings in multiple polls by the american enterprise, vanderbilt university and others that a majority of republican voters now say the american way of life is disappearing so fast that traditional american way of life that we may have to use force to save it i think you're seeing this is a manifestation not just of incivility but of the fundamental view of the illegitimacy and ominous shores we're sailing toward quickly in 2022 and especially 2024. >> margaret, i want your take on what happened overall but it strikes me that it seems like the president wasn't aware that people have been saying this for months now about him. >> i think he's aware. i think he was on a santa call and wanted it to stay about the santa call. >> and what did you think about the way that, as ron put it, it speaks to insurrection, not just incivility? >> look, we're heading into -- i think we are also like distracted by, oh, it's the end of the year and build back better and all this stuff, but january 6th is like two weeks away. and we're going to see in that moment what happens in terms of protests, movement politics, how donald trump responds, how his base responds, how the white house responds, how nancy pelosi responds. this is a moment of crisis for our country and the first a anniversary of that moment is going to give us a real clue about what to expect between now and the midterm elections p. it's astonishing the former president will use that day to further sow the line of election fraud and further his animosity toward this country. margaret talev, ron brownstein, thank you both for the time. >> thank you. happy christmas eve. >> merry christmas. >> merry christmas. weeks after a series of deadly tornadoes devastated parts of kentucky, one man is working to bring a little cheer to those in need this christmas. we'll introduce you to him, next. we're carvana, the company who invented car vending machines and buying a car 100% online. now we've created a brand-new way for you to sell your car. whether it's a year old or a few years old. we wanna buy your car. so go to carvana and enter your license plate answer a few questions. and our techno wizardry calculates your car's value and gives you a real offer in seconds. when you're ready, we'll come to you, pay you on the spot and pick up your car, that's it. so ditch the old way of selling your car, and say hello to the new way at carvana. 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what will covid bring in six months, a year? if you're feeling anxious about the future, you're not alone. calhope offers free covid-19 emotional support. call 833-317-4673, or live chat at calhope.org today. so let's get back to that kentucky native who is giving back to his home state after some deadly tornadoes there. jordan n. davis joins us now. he's raised money to distribute christmas gifts to storm survivors. jordan, we appreciate you sharing part of your christmas eve with us. very envious of your decorations. first, tell us how much you've raised and how the gift distribution is going. we have some pictures from your twitter page to share with our viewers. >> oh, great. well, boris, thanks for having me and for your patience on the connection there. i really appreciate the opportunity. we were able to raise just over $28,000 for this effort, and that translated into being able to purchase a little over 1,100 toys, which we were able to distribute at multiple distribution sites in western kentucky. and we were really excited about how it all came together and again, thank you for giving us the opportunity to share a little more about it today. >> of course. i think that may be your dad in between these two trucks. he's been driving a truck to deliver gifts. did you have enough volunteers to get the mission done to get all these gifts to people by christmas? >> well, it was a bit of a shoestring operation. we were very surprised about the amount of money we were able to raise. that translated into a bit of a scramble for me and my dad and actually my mom. you see there's two trucks there. both my parents ended up having to be our drivers for this. but once we got on the ground in madisonville and mayfield, there are a number of people, obviously, that are volunteering there every day and so all we had to do was make the delivery and the folks there on the ground were able to take what we were able to provide and get set up for distribution to kids both the day we dropped off and the following days. >> jordan, tell us how people are reacting when you are there presenting them with these gifts. >> well, there's a lot of gratitude. i will say one of the challenges we initially had was we had this idea we wanted to bring toys to the area that was just devastated and we're this close to christmas but understandably, the people on the ground were more concerned about the immediate needs of -- people needed money and water and supplies. just the immediate aftermath. so it took a few days to sort of -- for folks to think about christmas is next week. we need to be thinking about what are we going to do for the kids in this area? we tried to time that with the relief efforts on the ground. by the time we were able to get our trucks into the area, there were consolidated distribution centers already in place that have been stood up by state of kentucky and others that we were able to tap into and distribute there. so just the opportunity to put some smiles on kids' faces or to give parents the opportunity to pick up some toys to give to their kids on christmas, it was really important for us to do that, and it's just incredible to see it all come together. >> jordan n. davis, we appreciate what you were doing. i was fortunate enough to report from places like mayfield in kentucky and just the outpouring of the people in kentucky, it's heartwarming to see folks come together to help each other in a time of need. jordan, thank you so much. >> thank you. when we come back, some interesting numbers. actually, we're not going to commercial break. we're staying right here. you have your wrapping paper, christmas dinner plans. did you remember the cookies for santa? you might be surprised how many americans have a similar list that they are checking twice if not three times right now. time to bring in cnn's senior data reporter harry enten. sampling might be difficult given the small numbers in the north poll but i understand you've got some numbers related to christmas for us. what did you find that interested you? >> oh, a number of things. first off, christmas is perhaps one of the most american holidays that are out there. i'm jewish. i don't celebrate it, but it turns out if you ask americans do they, in fact, celebrate christmas, look how many do. 92%. that even includes 81% of non-christians. again, i'm jewish, i don't but that's a lot of people. and more interestingly, take a look about whether people have christmas trees in their household. look at this. 55% say yes i do. but it's artificial. 22% say yes, it's real. there's 22% who say, no, i don't. i'm one of those 22% but it's so interesting living in the northeast that there are so many people who have these artificial trees. that's just something that doesn't comport with me. i like a new england pine tree. >> you like the smell, the scent and residue in your home? >> yes. >> and maybe a pet attacking it. just a few more hours to finish up holiday shopping, harry. who all, aside from me, waits until the last minute. >> a lot of folks. it was a recent poll that essentially asked, when are you going to get done with your holiday shopping. 36% say they wait until the last ten days before christmas to get it done. i'd like to know who the 22% are who got it done by december 1st. is that ned flanders or somebody? i guess my question is, why did you wait until the last minute to get it done? >> i've been busy. i've been working. i'm going to tell my nephew the reason he's getting a size men's large hoodie that says cnn on it is because he should grow into it and celebrate this wonderful company that we work for. more families coming together this year compared to last year. obviously, if you're traveling, you to brace yourself for aunts and uncles and family members you don't want to see. what do people say is the most stressful part of getting together for christmas? >> if you look at the polling, we see that it's, in fact, finding the right gifts. i'll say i have one of those problems. i tried to get my mom a gift. she then cancelled it on amazon and said, no, i don't want that. we had it out a little bit. and traveling, 24% as you mentioned as well. >> so once everyone gets home, they have to figure out what movie they'll watch. what's the go-to christmas movie in most households? >> not really a surprise "a wonderful life" is up there. "christmas story" which is always on tbs. "elf." but where is "die hard" on this list? that's my question. >> that's a very good moment. may not be classified as a christmas movie. i personally love "the shining." i think there's a lot of family warmth and sentiment that comes with that film. >> very nice. >> it is. harry enten, thanks for the time, man. >> go bills on sunday. >> go dolphins. hey, if you were able to catch a flight to see your family, you were one of the lucky ones. coming up in, the maxmassive airline cancellations. the next hour of "newsroom" after a quick break. is the planning effect. this is how it feels to know you have a wealth plan that covers everything that's important to you. this is what it's like to have a dedicated fidelity advisor looking at your full financial picture. making sure you have the right balance of risk and reward. and helping you plan for future generations. this is "the planning effect" from fidelity. it's the season of smiling. and at aspen dental, we make it easy to gift yourself the smile you deserve. new patients, start today with a full exam and x-rays, with no obligation. if you don't have insurance, it's free. plus everyone saves 20% on their treatment plan with flexible payment solutions for every budget. we're here making smiles shine bright so you can start the new year feelin' alright. call 1-800-aspendental or book today at aspendental.com ♪ ♪ you are my fire ♪ ♪ the one desire ♪ ♪ you are, you are, ♪ ♪ don't wanna hear you say... ♪ ♪ ♪ i want it that way ♪ mom, hurry! our show's gonna start soon! i promised i wouldn't miss the show and mommy always keeps her promises. oh, no! seriously? hmm! it's not the same if she's not here. oh. -what the. oh my goodness! i don't suppose you can sing, can you? ♪ the snow's comin' down ♪ -mommy? ♪ i'm watching it fall ♪ watch the full story at www.xfinity.com/sing2 you're live in the cnn newsroom. thanks for joining us. i'm boris sanchez. hundreds of christmas eve flights are grounded as the omicron variant hits airlines hard. we're tracking the holiday disruptions and the surge in covid cases that's shattering records. also, newly released video shows a brutal three-hour battle on january 6th. rioters attacking police in a capitol tunnel. one of the most violent clashes during the insurrection. and a teenager's shopping trip turns deadly. a bullet tearing through a dressing room wall shot by a police officer firing at a suspect. how did this confrontation go so horribly wrong? so right now thousands of people who expected to be boarding a flight this christmas eve are stuck and frustrated. the omicron surge forcing the cancellation of more than 2,000 flights globally, including hundreds here in the united states. we start this hour with cnn's brian todd. he's live at reagan national airport just outside of washington, d.c., as airlines deal with a rash of covid related sickouts. >> reporter: in terminal after terminal, a glance up at these boards brought frustration and anxiety for air travelers. >> we were really concerned when i saw on the news they canceled 100 flights. oh, my god, we won't be able to get home. >> reporter: airlines around the world canceling thousands of flights christmas eve, including several hundred in the united states. >> make sure your cell phone is charged so that you're getting airline alerts in case anything changes. i recommend you bring snacks in case lines are long and you're getting hungry. >> reporter: united and delta apologized to passengers. both carriers saying their cancellations were at least partly due to the omicron varian

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