As if being president of the United States weren’t difficult enough, one of the biggest challenges they face is holding fast to their family traditions at Christmas. While there’s a great deal of public celebration and fanfare, from the lighting of the national Christmas tree to elegant White House holiday displays, several presidents have had less public celebrations.
Historian and “First Ladies Man” Andy Och shares how President Rutherford B. Hayes celebrated Christmas at his Ohio home. “Their master bedroom right off the first floor parlor would be the hub of the house on Christmas morning,” he said. It was a more modest celebration for a post-Civil War president who gathered his children on his bed to open presents.
“This, to me, makes these people real. It pulls them off the pages of history,” Och said.
In a private gift exchange, President Abraham Lincoln gave first lady Mary a diamond locket, presumed to be for their anniversary or Christmas.
President Obama is continuing his holiday tradition of spending Christmas with his family in Hawaii.
