{"id":170376,"date":"2023-12-02T08:38:51","date_gmt":"2023-12-02T16:38:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/?p=170376"},"modified":"2023-12-02T08:38:51","modified_gmt":"2023-12-02T16:38:51","slug":"president-biden-at-the-national-christmas-tree-lighting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/?p=170376","title":{"rendered":"President Biden at the National Christmas Tree Lighting"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Washington, DC&#8230;Five, four, three, two, one! (Applause.)\u00a0 (The President and First Lady light the National Christmas Tree.)\u00a0 All right. They\u2019ve got it.\u00a0 Merry Christmas, everybody! (Applause.)\u00a0 Jill and I are honored to welcome you. (Inaudible.)\u00a0 (\u201cDeck the Halls\u201d is played.)\u00a0 All right. Again, Merry Christmas, everyone. Have a seat, if you\u2019d like.\u00a0 Jill and I are honored to welcome you to the National Christmas Tree Lighting.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/406457578_688090473505076_5063686694582067735_n.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-170377\" src=\"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/406457578_688090473505076_5063686694582067735_n.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" srcset=\"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/406457578_688090473505076_5063686694582067735_n.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/406457578_688090473505076_5063686694582067735_n-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/406457578_688090473505076_5063686694582067735_n-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/406457578_688090473505076_5063686694582067735_n-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/406457578_688090473505076_5063686694582067735_n-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/406457578_688090473505076_5063686694582067735_n-570x380.jpg 570w, https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/406457578_688090473505076_5063686694582067735_n-701x467.jpg 701w, https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/406457578_688090473505076_5063686694582067735_n-1067x711.jpg 1067w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a> <\/p>\n<p>President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden attend the National Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony, Thursday, November 30, 2023, on the Ellipse in Washington, D.C. (Official White House Photo by Oliver Contreras)<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"President Biden and the First Lady Participate in the National Christmas Tree Lighting\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/DJsUxDA16iE\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Thanks to the Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and the National Park Service Foundation. (Applause.) They\u2019re the one doing this.<\/p>\n<p>And a special thanks to tonight\u2019s host, Mickey, and all those incredible performers we have here tonight.<\/p>\n<p>This is a great tradition \u2014 one, as has been pointed out already, we\u2019ve honored over 100 years, where presidents and the people come together to usher in the holiday season.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this week, Jill and I announced the theme \u2014 Jill announced the theme of this year\u2019s holiday at the White House: \u201cMagic, Wonder, and Joy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Three words that capture the essence of Christmas and the holidays to rediscover for ourselves the simple joys of the season, from familiar songs to favorite recipes; to open the hearts with simple acts of kindness, especially to those \u2014 those going through hard times; and to strengthen the bonds with family and friends, as well as with our faith and our community; to remember we\u2019re a great nation because we\u2019re a good people.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s what I see all across America, including tonight.<\/p>\n<p>Joining us are 43 members of Team USA who represented our nation at the Invictus Games this past September. (Applause.) Give them a hand.<\/p>\n<p>Jill and Prince Harry went to the first Invictus Games in \u201914. And Invictus Games in Ontario, I was there in \u201916, in Toronto. Anyways, there\u2019s been great, great, great effort that we\u2019ve seen.<\/p>\n<p>And, you know, these athletes were incredible: wounded warriors from service branches \u2014 every service branch \u2014 in the essence of who we are as Americans.<\/p>\n<p>We look to one another, and we look out for one another. We leave no one behind. And for our best, we are united at our best.<\/p>\n<p>We are the United States of America.<\/p>\n<p>We begin another holiday season. Let\u2019s remember how blessed we are as Americans for the gift that is our nation.<\/p>\n<p>So, Merry Christmas, America.<\/p>\n<p>May God bless you all. And may God protect our troops.<\/p>\n<p>Merry, merry Christmas. (Applause.)<\/p>\n<p>6:10 P.M. EST<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Washington, DC&#8230;Five, four, three, two, one! (Applause.)\u00a0 (The President and First Lady light the National Christmas Tree.)\u00a0 All right. They\u2019ve got it.\u00a0 Merry Christmas, everybody! (Applause.)\u00a0 Jill and I are honored to welcome you. (Inaudible.)\u00a0 (\u201cDeck the Halls\u201d is played.)\u00a0 All right. Again, Merry Christmas, everyone. Have a seat, if you\u2019d like.\u00a0 Jill and I [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":170377,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,5,4,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-170376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-government","category-life-style","category-news","last_archivepost"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/406457578_688090473505076_5063686694582067735_n.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=170376"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170376\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":170378,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170376\/revisions\/170378"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/170377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=170376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=170376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=170376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}