sense of family, friendship, giving, and joy. >> the evergreen tree reminds us that even in the coldest, darkest days of winter, that light and abundance will return. >> through the years and through the eyes of first families. >> my grandmother decided in the mid-1920s that she was going to make christmas the biggest deal ever. >> my mother, i think, said it best when she said, you know, every day in the white house is a gift to my life, but never more so than at christmas. and i share that sentiment. >> in this hour, family, festivities, faith, and the work of the presidency, which doesn't stop any day of the year. ♪♪ >> announcer: the following program is brought to you in living color on nbc. hello and welcome to "fireside history." i'm michael beschloss. in this episode, little white house holiday magic, presidential historian style with help from the nbc news archives. the hope for all of us in public life and private is that the winter holidays are times of unity and peace, but, of course, history shows us that that is not always the case. in 1941, christmas came just a few weeks after the united states was attacked at pearl harbor. president biden franklin roosevelt hosted british prime minister winston churchill in washington. wartime security was tight, and the lights on the building were turned down. both men had received death threats, but they kept up tradition and lit the national christmas tree from the south portico of the white house. afterwards they addressed their nations and the world balancing the realities of war and christmas wishes. >> there is another preparation demanded of this nation beyond and beside the preparation of weapons and materiels of war. there is demanded also of us the preparation of our hearts, the army of our hearts. and when we make ready our hearts for the labor and the suffering and the ultimate victory which lie ahead, then we observe christmas day with all of its memories and all of its meanings as we should. >> we may toss aside for this night at least the terrors and dangers which beset us and make for the children an evening of happiness in a world of storm. >> president roosevelt's last christmas as commander in chief came in 1944. he had just been re-elected to a fourth term, and with the war ending, he spoke on radio from his house at hyde park, new york. >> it is not easy to say merry christmas to you, my fellow americans, in this time of destrictive war, nor can i say merry christmas lightly tonight to our armed forces at their battle stations all over the world or to our allies who fight by our side. >> roosevelt felt the presidential waves and personal sacrifice of war. as the family gathered for the holiday, he had four sons in military service. first lady eleanor roosevelt said, i hope next year we'll all be home. but even at that time, roosevelt was secretly very ill and died a few months after the holiday. harry truman suddenly became president after fdr died in april of 1945 and he had to deal with ending world war ii around the globe, many problems in the aftermath of war, and at the same time, a crisis in his marriage. bess truman had been accustomed to being very much involved in what her husband was doing as a senator from missouri, but the second he became president, he had to read up on what a president should do and look at intelligence documents to the point that he felt that he didn't have very much time to explain to his wife what he was doing, and she was so furious at christmastime after months of this that she went back to their home in independence, missouri, and left him in the white house. truman decided to try a reconciliation by coming to independence on christmas day 1945. he shows up at the truman house with an armful of presents. mrs. truman opens the door and glares at him. truman wrote to bess later on about how hurt he had felt tha after he had finally come home for christmas, she looked at him as if it was something the cat dragged in. truman had to deal not only with the grave weapons of war and piece and atomic weapons with the end of world war iipresiden to deal with his mother-in-law. his mother-in-law felt her daughter married way below her social station, and so you have this scene at christmas where the elder mrs. wallace, the mother-in-law, would sit down at the table with a present nearby, and she detested harry truman so much she would barely condescend to look in his direction. the scene took place year after year at christmastime. christmastime 1963 found a grieving nation. one of the country's most profound losses had come just weeks before in november 1963 when president john f. kennedy was shot and killed in dallas. in previous years the kennedy family had shared cheerful images of their holidays like this one from palm beach in 1962, but in a melancholy piece of white house planning months before president kennedy and first lady jackie kennedy went to texas on that tragic day, they had already chosen the gifts they would give to family and friends, and their christmas cards had already been printed. but instead of another kennedy christmas, the duties of the presidency would fall to lyndon baines johnson who had recently been sworn in as 36th president of the united states, taking over after the assassination of president kennedy. one month after the assassination, president johnson spoke at a memorial candle light ceremony at the lincoln memorial honoring jfk. >> 30 days and a few hours ago john fitzgerald kennedy, 35th president of the united states, died a martyr. the world will not forget what he did here. he will live on in our hearts, which will be his shrine. >> late their same day, johnson lit the national christmas tree. it was a moment of tradition and a moment of sadness all in one presidential day. lbj's daughter, lucy johnson. >> it was a time where the nation was consumed with grief of losing a vital and vibrant, very attractive and delightful president and his beautiful wife and precious children. so not only did our family, but the nation's family. and all of a sudden on december 22nd after a month of mourning, the veil came down, and christmas came up. the juxtaposition of the two, there really wasn't any interlude for everyday living. it was from pain and suffering that seemed to last forever. the hope and promise and piecepeace was on the horizon. >> the news of the nation always breaks into the holidays. that was true for president jimmy carter who remembered the hostages of iran at christmas. >> to see almost 4,000 lights explode on that 30-foot-high blue spruce is indeed a wonderment. this was the scene two years ago when president carter and his wife and daughter did the lighting. so when the crowd gathered on the ellipse last christmas, it was a spectacle. this is what happened in '79 >> i want to tell you what just happened. we will turn on the other lights on the tree when the american hostages come home. >> it was indeed a dramatic gesture, but as the months rolled on without any hostage release, the u.s. wondering if he had promised too much. the city began to speculate on whether president carter would break his christmas tree promise or try to step around it. after all, a new and encouraging reported message was on its way from iran. this is what happened tonight. >> i'm going to ask this christmas not amy, but my oldest grandson jason to throw the switch and light the tree. we all will continue to pray we can turn the rest of the lights on when our hostages come home. good-bye. thank you very much. >> presidential messages around the holidays tend to focus on univeral themes of the time. war, national security, peace, and prosperity, but occasionally it's the way the message is delivered that makes news. >> when the weight of 8800 pounds, it's the biggest satellite, more than rush's sputnik 3. but as to the awesome accuracy of its guidance system, all else is overshadowed by the amazing communications system it carries aloft. the atlas can receive messages from earth, record them from a command signal on the ground. says the president, my voice is coming to you circling from out of space. >> ike's granddaughter susan eisenhower gave us some first family insight on this remarkable moment. >> the backstory's fascinating because the pentagon was going to launch this satellite. you can't call it the pentagon. whoever was in charge of that. the point is somebody from the military was going to offer a greeting, and when the president found out, he said, no, no, i'm going to use this opportunity, and he did, to wish during this religious season to wish for peace on earth. >> and the next year, another history-making eisenhower december. >> he chose out of three around-the-world trips after the advent of jets that would make trips like this possible, he chose to go over the christmas season. and so he went to turkey, pakistan, italy, afghanistan, india, iran, greece, tunisia, france, spain, and morocco. and after this three-week trip he came back just before christmas. it was late at night. and as they arrived at the white house, lafayette park was full of people with candles burning. and that is how they started the christmas season of 1959. i think it only underscores the point that this christmas thing was a multi-dimensional thing that went on from the beginning of the season, and i remember well that return from around the world, and there was so much hope that was generated from it. when you think of the countries i just mentioned, i mean, this was obviously not an easy trip. >> very hard for him. >> very hard, especially -- i think he broke the altitude record of flying the helicopter over the mountains in afghanistan, he was so determined to make this trip and do it in a way that would signal to the world that america was coming as a friend and neighbor. of course, he ends the trip with, again, you know, best wishes for this season with the hope of peace. i think it's very important to say that both of my grandparents were spiritually oriented. i wouldn't say they had ever been that much associated with real organized religion until the presidential years, but, you know, christmas was very meaningful. >> over time, the meaning of holidays at the white house has expanded to include other celebrations across america. president jimmy carter was the first to light a public menorah near the mall in 1979. in 1993, president bill clinton lit a smar menorah in the oval office. during the george w. bush administration, a hanukkah celebration was added to the white house holiday schedule. the first menorah lighting in the executive residence was in december of 2001 with george and laura bush. in 2007, the parents of slain reporter daniel pearl, a victim of terrorism, lit the menorah at the white house. the menorah had been in the pearl family for generations. >> the menorah we light tonight has special meaning. it once belonged to hiam pearl, who was the great-grandfather of "wall street journal" reporter daniel pearl. while reporting in pakistan 2002, daniel was kidnapped and murdered by terrorists. his only crime was being a jewish american. by honoring daniel, we're given the opportunity to bring forth hope from the darkness of tragedy, and that is a miracle worth celebrating during the festival of lights. >> it was also the last time a first family has been separated by war. 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claus at the white house tour. >> who's been bad? all right. >> we don't know what mrs. reagan asked for, but mr. t got a little something extra from her. >> oh, wow. now that will start some scandals, uh-huh. ♪♪ >> it takes a small army to decorate america's house. upstairs an 18-football sam fir from wisconsin goes up in the blue room. the chef and his staff have worked for weeks to build a castle made of gingerbread, chocolate, and sugar. >> we do not use any wood of any kind to support the house. it's all food, all sweets. >> nancy clark directs the troops as longtime volunteers join the newcomers to get the job done. >> it's such a special house. >> it's such a great experience. >> i'm just awestruck. >>mrs. clinton invited a designer to create the theme, a winter wonderland. one of his mottos, it's not done until it's overdone. >> it will keep being done until the first guest walks in. >> the east room became the centerpiece, and this cake specialist made special sculptures for the mantel pieces. whimsical special creations way too special to eat. the blue room was covered with 2,700 lights and over 2,000 handmade garlands. 344 wreaths were hung. 843 bows were tied. slowly, assurely it was transformed. >> white house staffers, artisans from all over the country and hundreds of volunteers have been working since last january to deck these halls and in the next few weeks plenty of creatures will be stirring around here. an estimated 20,000 visitors are expected to walk through this winter wonderland. >> it's a fun time to work here, isn't it? >> it's great. we invite in a lot of children's choirs and entertainment groups and they so enjoy it. every time they come through the doors, they're so tickled to be here. >> and now the holiday season officially begins. >> hello. you guys look great. mrs. clinton. >> nice to see you. >> nice to see you too. hi, mr. president. >> you're seeing the house for the holidays before anybody else has seen it because we just finished it about 2:00 this afternoon i think the final touches were put on, so we're delighted you can be here. >> it's a very glam look this year, very gold, very sill version very glam, don't you think? >> we wanted to do a winter wonderland. and when you think of winter, you think of silver and white and crystal, and there's so much gold in the house already, a little gold to tie it all together. we had the best help. the white house staff is beyond description. they're so wonderful. >> are you all looking forward to the holidays? >> very much. chelsea will be home pretty soorngs and we always love it. >> do you all have any plans for the holidays? >> our idea for the big holidays is go nowhere and do nothing. our family comes to us. we have a tree of our own on the second floor of the white house that we always decorate ourselves and it takes a couple of days because you have to stop and look at every ornament and remember where it came from. that takes a while. then our family starts coming in. and we've got these two little nephews who are fab fab lus and getting smarter and brighter every year, and we just hang out, you know? we eat too much, hopefully sleech a little more to catch up on the year's deficit, and just have a good time together. >> every first family brings its own rhythm and traditions to the white house. eisenhower granddaughter susan eisenhower. how important was christmas to your grandparents? >> christmas was extraordinarily important to my grandparent on a range of levels. first of all, they lost their first son dowd dwight at the age of 3 over the christmas season, and he was taken to the infirmary at fort meade with some kind of indescribable symptoms that weren't evident at first. that was the night before christmas literally, and his little red tricycle had already been assembled. it was under the christmas tree. and when he got to the infirmary, they didn't let him out. they discovered he had scarlet fever. he died on january 2nd, and so this whole christmas season for my grandparents was both heartbreaking on the one hand, but my grandmother who was never one to be slowed up by emotion to the point that she couldn't function decided probably in the mid-1920s that she was going to make christmas the biggest deal ever, and this whole thing started in about october. she had a little secret room for wrapping presents. and the festivities went on after thanksgiving all the way through the holiday season. >> and would they ever talk about their child, the lost child? would they talk to you about him or not talk about him? >> well, they talked about this young boy, but focused on his birthday rather than the period of death. as a matter of fact, in my grandmother's later years she said i can't remember the day he died. of course she could. she was unable to say good-bye to this little boy because she was ill herself. she had a respiratory infection and the doctors thought she was catching pneumonia and maybe even had some of this scarlet fever herself. so she was confined to her home. and you can imagine the tragedy of this loss, not to be able to say good-bye to your 3-year-old son. ike haunted the halls, to use the expression, of this infirmary, and i think actually in the end broke their regulations and went in and gave the boy a hug the day before he died. it was a tragic story. but she was determined that christmas was going to be the time when none of those memories were front and center, and she used it to celebrate everybody, including, by the way, the white house staff, all of the secret servicemen and their children, and, of course, grandchildren got pretty much the same presents that all the other children did too. >> those were not bad presents. i remember one year your grandfather gave people in the household staff a pocketknife with his initials on it. >> well, and also at one point, ike was an amateur painter, as you know, michael. >> of course. >> at one point he decided to have copies of a number of figures that he soed a mired, but they're kind of collector's items. >> along with the affairs of the state, presidential gifts are always on the scene of the holiday agenda. lucy remembers her father's generosity. >> when he had this incredible around-the-world trip several years later in '67, so my father comes home after all of that. we're awakened at 4:00 in the morning, go down like little nutcrackers, little tin soldiers to the front door to greet him and fall in his arms and welcome him home. and you would have thought that practically any other mortal man would want to say, i can barely make it to my bed, i love you, merry christmas, i'm out of here for a while. but not lyndon johnson. he came home and said, now, did suzie get a present and did mary get a present? how about john? what dress do we have for josephine? it was one of those, he wanted to give, give, give, give something to everybody who had made that time so very special. and my mother writes in her dowry, you know, why did she think -- how could she have thought this year would somehow be different because lyndon johnson just was in love with christmas. >> and wasn't he known for giving out presents like the electric toothbrushes with the presidential seal on them. >> oh, my gosh. >> and what kind of other things? >> my favorite little gift was a small like a swiss army knife. it was a little tiny, tiny one. it could not have done any damage to anybody it was so small. and it was about as dangerous as an emery board. but it had a little toothpick in it and it had a little presidential seal on it, and he gave them to so many loved ones as a sign of appreciation. at some point my parents very rightly understood there was nothing we could give my grandparents for christmas that would mean enough to to them to add it to all of the other keepsakes they had, and my grandmother kept everything, absolutely everything to remember every gift give on the her. so we started putting on christmas pageants at the white house, and we used as the stage, stage, the area between the presidential family living quarters and the back bedrooms where you would find the lincoln bedroom and the queen's bedroom , and this is a parquet floor that leads downstairs to the floor where the official events took place. so that was our staging area. we put up sheets and this and that. and since i'm one of four -- the eisenhowers only had four grandchildren. it was everything. had to be sheep and cattle and mary and the angels and everything. there were only four of us. my mother became a great producer, and after they left the white house, these pageants continued over the christmas holiday including young abe lincoln. we did that one year. we did the sound of music one year. that was pretty ambitious. >> the last christmas in 1960, can you remember your own feelings? were you sorry to be leaving? were you glad to be out of the spotlight soon and have your family back? >> i don't think we really knew what it was to be out of the spotlight since i was born when my grandfather was supreme commander of nato forces in europe, and because of that, he was always surrounded by people accept for family events, of course. but my generation all had -- we all had secret service. we didn't really know what normal looked like. but when normal came, we were just fine with it. having said that, of course, we missed the secret service because in those days the secret service were much more informal, and we really developed tremendous bonds with them, and through the years we stayed in touch with their children. how wonderful for us. we have kind of a large extended family still. >> the mixed emotions of a last white house christmas are truly understood by only a very few people. susan eisenhower's grandfather was just the 34th president of the united states. lucy johnson's father was the 36th. >> could you tell our viewers why you were spending that christmas in the white house and talk about the fact that your husbands were gone and lucinda had just been born? >> it was our last christmas as part of a first family, and so my father was attuned to the fact that as much as i think he really wanted to go home to the ranch and get the comforts from home, that the white house had become home to a lot of the rest of his family, and it was one of those -- lyndon johnson was a historian, government may jofrmt he could sense that being in that home on that last opportunity that we would ever have to be there was important. it probably helped that he was married to a woman with a history degree and had a daughter who had a history degree. >> right. >> and so that sense of history was profoundly important to all of our family. and i think he sensed it. and so we stayed. our husbands were in vietnam. we were able to get a phone call free. and that was just unheard of at the time. today our soldiers and sailors and airmen, they still have that great separation from their loved ones over the holidays. but their communication is much more timely. and we -- our communication is letters that would sometimes take several weeks to get there and reel-to-reel tapes, cassette tapes. to have a phone call was just the greatest gift you could possibly have. and chuck and patrick got together and gave out christmas presents to poor children in an orphanage in vietnam, and it was also the last time a first family has been separated by war. so it was very poignant -- a poignant time for us. >> i'll bet. i've been looking at some of the pictures, you know, when you're all sitting in the yellow oval room upstairs. and i love lucinda, and i love lynn donn, but the star of those pictures is yuki. >> we got him on thanksgiving eve as an abandoned little puppy, little dog and a johnson city filling station. the long and short of it is that my father identified with yuki very much. here he had been abandoned in a country filling station to going from that bereaved situation to sleeping in the white house with the president of the united states. and he just -- he just loved that. presidential pets can give us a window into family life at the white house, and when they have their own production crew, they add a fury dimension to holiday cheer. >> but i've already given you an important job. your job is to take care of miss beasley. ♪♪ of course, the decorations were over the top. today we make it an art form and get designers and professional decorators in. may me was having none of that because she was the chief designer when it came to christmas. christmas. our retailers have been sharing the love with those who need it most. now subaru is the largest automotive donor to make-a-wish and meals on wheels. and the largest corporate donor to the aspca and national park foundation. get a new subaru during the share the love event and subaru will donate two hundred and fifty dollars to charity. if you're washing with the bargain brand, even when your clothes 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traditionally come with elaborate menus that i can tell you are irresistible for presidential historians. take a look at this one from 1889. blue point oysters on the half to start, then turkey with krahn barry jelly is the main course with ice cream for dessert. in 1941 when british prime minister winston churchill was fdr's guest of honor, oysters on the half shell were there as well. it was chestnut turkey and giblet gravy. >> president reagan on christmas eve had no public schedule at all. this morning he posed with his wife in front of the family christmas tree in the living quarters. in mid afternoon he stuck his head in the briefing room to wish them a merry christmas. they enjoyed dinner. >> white house holiday sweet treats are not only designed to be tasty. in some cases they're a celebration all on their own. there's an element of surprise for the kid in all of us involved with one very special baked good. ♪♪ >> the gingerbread house is almost the equivalent of a state secret. >> i can kind of smell what's going on when he's putting it together, but i like to be surprised as well. >> we have a snowman, snow lady, snow child, gender-neutral snow people. >> there was always a gasp because we couldn't see it until it was unveiled. sometimes we would sneak down the night before. >> often we snuck down. >> they caught on because they would lock the door to the dining room. >> it smells good. >> it was real. >> it was pat nixen who started the tradition in 1969. >> that was a high point because who doesn't feel young at heart in the presence of a charming old-fashioned gingerbread house. >> her pastry chef made such an irresistible creation, the president couldn't keep his hands off. >> when my father saw it for the first time, he reached out to take a tiny little morsel toward the back where no one would notice, and she said, don't you o dare. >> nixon was not the only one who couldn't resist the temptation. first daughter amy carter was 9 years old when her family first experienced christmas in the white house. a kid in the ultimate candy store. >> i think i probably broke a piece off from the back hopefully. >> why not. >> did you in. >> no, but i -- somebody did. >> somebody did. some unnamed child. >> the gingerbread houses are amazing and they've gotten more amazing every year. >> so amazing they're now more like high art than sweet treat. >> i'm so excited because we've developed this recipe for this special gingerbread dough. it looks like granite, so it's going to have a very interesting look. >> i know he wanted to make some changes this year. the unveiling will come soon enough. >> this is our gingerbread house. >> oh, my god. >> this white house looks kind of real. eve includes chandeliers that light up. >> with a white house chef on hand every day, presidents can eat whatever they like, and they all have their favorites. president johnson certainly had his. >> what kind of food did he like to eat on christmas. >> oh, my father loved puddings. you heard a lot about the tapioca pudding. he loved puddings, souffles, loved sweets. he had a profound sweet tooth. my mother tried desperately to curb it as best she could. he enjoyed all the christmas trimmings, the turkey and the dressing and the sweet potato souffle. just the joy of being focused on others and of giving. >> white house decorations may be a little bit more over the top than they may be at your house, but the tree still has that all important role, the place for presents. >> the thing is that mame had an uncanny way of knowing what people liked. she had a zany taste, and i think a lot of people don't fully realize that. you might get bunny slippers. for kids, you'd understand it. she was a kick, and i think a lot of people didn't realize what a sense of humor she had. i remember always thinking that our presents were buried somewhere there under the tree with about 45 or 50 other gifts for, as i said, all of the kids who belonged to this larger, you know, official family. also there was a very big deal made about christmas cookies, and it's very funny about the visceral senses because i can go into the white house today and still smell the floor wax, and i don't think they still use the same cookie recipe, but for years they did. you could go in and smell the cookie recipe and it would all come flooding back. >> and did your grandmother used to say to you or convey to you, you know, when we celebrate christmas, we're also seth an example for the nation and little kids across the country will be seeing the way you pose in pictures, that kind of thing? >> we were -- if it's okay to say this, we were really overtrained, i have to say. >> i thought that, but i thought i would ask. >> well, you know, we were -- we were getting that -- some versions of that message the whole time, and at christmas, of course, i mean if you look at the little frocks we were wearing, we were quite dressed up. sometimes my sister and i would put on matching outfits. we would go out of our way to make sure we were not wearing the same color these days, but that was quite common, i think, in the 1950s is to have -- yes, i think we were very aware of that. we had been trained long before about how to pose for pictures, in other words, not to get out in front and not be too pushy, et cetera, et cetera. i think i learned how to courtesy just before queen elizabeth's visit to the united states in 1959. but as you well know, we played a minor role in averting a confrontation between the united states and the soevl unit during nikita khruschev's visit, and so we were severely warned about what this would mean without telling us this would mean. michael, if i could, where we understood we were poster children in a way were these big big inoculations in the 1950s for polio. i remember the gamma goblian shots. i know in one case we were the first family to be inoculated, not the last by any means or waiting and seeing. this family was going to, you know, stand up and lead the way, and this was -- otherwise my parents felt very strongly -- my grandfather's administration was his, and he wanted to make sure that aside from these appearances especially over christmas and other things that we did not start wearing as he said the boss's stars. >> and also as we both know and you especially, your father had a particular allergy to publicity for his growing children, with i always admired. i loved that. >> he really did. as a matter of fact, he had a rule, that unless my grandparents were in the pictures, we were not allowed to be photographed without them, so there was no sort of puffing up this family as part of the narrative, only when it became important around things like vaccinations and when we were with our grandparents over the holidays, especially christmas. i can't put too fine a point on the christmas thing because it was -- christmas was so overwhelming in the eisenhower household that all of us to this day are still afraid of having it without our grandmother who made it so special and so memorable and so much was invested in it that it's hard to replicate it on any level. she liked to share it not just with family but sometimes others who might be at loose ends. and, again, that long table in the state dining room is a magnificent thing. and then, of course, the decorations were over the top. today we make it an art form and we get designers and professional decorators, but mame would have had none of that because she was the chief designer when it came to christmas, and this was all part of the big effort. >> and did your grandfather -- did he like it as much as she did, or was it something she did that hoe was pleased but not quite as much. >> everything was an opportunity to have fun, bring everybody together as a family, and to get my grandfather to relax and focus on the fun of being with family. and she did so much to lighten his load by just being a joy to be around. she had a wonderful sense of humor, and she knew her own mind. holidays are what she did. >> how did you compare celebrating the holidays in the white house now as compared to the 1950s? >> it's always different how things go on in the family quarters and howeveren chooses to mark this day, but i would be hard-pressed that anyone would put the heart into it as mame eisenhower did. first of all, it's a religious holiday, and the tragedy in their lives. her focus on christmas was the way it was because she wanted to hold back what she might think of otherwise. i mean that's my own amateur psychology on this. there was so much that went into it. i'm not sure other people would think it made any sense to start so early and to be so emphatic about it and to write christmas cards to the entire world and to respond to total strangers and others who just wrote into the white house. this was her real mission. >> every day in the white house is a gift to my life, but never more so than at christmas. 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naturally. president biden september messages across to the military. >> when you come home, you will be welcomed as all-american heros. today at the white house and all across america, candles burn in remembrance of you and all our troops across the country and around the world. >> welcome back to fireside history. it is the most solemn of presidential responsibilities. commander in chief. the power to send troops in to dangerous situations far from home. george herbert walker bush understood that better than most. as a navy veteran of world war ii who had lost friends in combat. war was also ever-present in the johnson white house, especially as lbj wound down his time in office. >> for the white house, christmas 1968 meant nostalgia, hope, thankfulness. it was president johnson's last christmas in this house. although mr. johnson like much of the nation suffered a bout with the flu, he was home from the hospital in time for the presents to be opened. all his family except his two sons-in-law were gathered about him. this year more so than in the press past was ending on a note of hope. by christmas, the astronauts were heading safely home. north korea has finally freed the crew members, and contingents had gathered in paris and the nation prospered as never before. president johnson shared the satisfaction of all americans in these blessings. but as always, his thoughts were on those who were far from home. standing vigilant on the freedoms we cherish. as he put it in his christmas message to servicemen around the world -- >> this christmas, the world is brightened when the hope of peace comes, when hope turns to substance, and the guns are quiet once again. it will come because you have pursued it with your courage and your skill. >> that was christmas 1968. the end of a difficult year for everyone. at the white house, the flip side of holiday joy will always be the weight of the office for the president and the first family. during the presidency and beyond. >> every day that we had in the white house was an extraordinary gift to our lives. but never more so than at christmas when we outwardly celebrated and made sure that we expressed to each other and to the world just how much we meant to each other. just how much we cared. just how much we hoped to leave the world a better place than we found it. in any way we could. lyndon johnson was acutely aware that all that he had achieved was not because of his own capabilities. it was because he had had people who loved him, who believed in him, who had helped him and who mattered. christmases for us were always christmas eve at our grandmother's and then not long after came the presidency and it became more christmas. christmas mornings time spent with loved one, time spent giving out gifts, time watching my father play santa claus. because whether he was dressed up in the suit or not, he loved giving. and it brought him so much more joy than getting. and that was infectious. it was infectious. we loved -- we loved watching him, we loved being a part of it. and i miss that. and i always will. but i'll be forever grateful to have had those times together with a man who for whom every day had some christmas in it. >> thanks for watching fireside history. we leave you now with a favorite holiday tradition from the white house to your house. >> 'twas the night before christmas when all through the house not a creature was stirring -- >> not even a mouse. >> the stockings were hung by the chimney with care in hopes that st. nicholas soon would be there. >> the children were nestled all snug in their beds while visions of sugar plums danced in their heads. >> and mom in her kerchief and i in high cap had just settled in. >> and i there is a rose a clutter and i tore from my bed. >> and i tore open the shutters and threw up the sash. >> and it gave the luster of midday to objects below. >> and what to my wondering eyes should appear? a miniature sleigh and eight tiny reindeer. >> with a little old driver so lively and quick, i knew in a moment it must be st. nick. >> more rapid than eagles, he whistled and called some by name. >> now dasher, now dancer, now prancer and vixen, on comet, on cupid, on donder and blitzen. >> to the top of the courts, to the top of the wall, thousand dash away, dash away, dash away all. >> as dry leaves before the wild hurricane fly, when they meet with an obstacle and mount to the sky. >> so up to the house top they flew with a sleigh full of toys and st. nick has too. >> and i heard the prancing and pawing of each little hoof. and down the chimney st. nicholas came with a bound. >> he was dressed all in fur from his head to his foot, and his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot. >> a bundle of toys he had flung on his back and he looked like a peddler just opening his pack. >> his cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry. >> his mouth was drawn up like a bow and the beard of his chin was as white as the snow. >> the stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth and the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath. >> he had a broad face and a round belly that shook when he laughed like a bowl full of jelly. >> he was chubby and plump and i laughed when i saw him in spite of myself. >> a wing of his eye told me i had nothing to dread. he went straight to his work and filled all the stockings and then turned with a jerk. >> and laying his finger aside of his nose, and giving a nod, up the chimney he rose. >> he sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle, and away they all flew like the down of a thistle. but he heard him exclaim merry christmas to all and to all a good night. first up on msnbc, right now many americans trying to get home for christmas are stranded. the omicron surge hitting the airline industry hard. forcing thousands of flight cancellations on one of the busiest travel days of the year. >> it is good to have plan b, c, d, e, f, you know. if i'm not able to get into delta, i'll go on jetblue. >> plus more waiting woes for people trying to get tested. what is next in the push for help and how it is affecting

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