One of my most favorite parts of the Christmas at the White House book is this article I discovered, written by First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy shortly before the President’s tragic death (seee below). In it she said “the world around us is a complicated and troubled place”, and this of course was even more meaningful after the assassination of her husband. It also seems to be very appropriate this Christmas after the unthinkable event in Connecticut. May we all wish this Christmas season for her words to be true: “Peace on earth, good will to men.”
An ancient tale tells us of the Christmas custom of burning a Yule log in every fireplace and of how, as the log was drawn from the forest, “each wayfarer raised his hat as it passed, for he well knew that it was full of good promises, and that its flame would burn out old wrongs. . . .”
The lights of our trees and homes in this season still signal this most ancient promise of Christmas—the end of all wrongs, the fulfillment of old hopes…. But even though the White House is often a center of national attention—a public building—during the Christmas season it is the home of an American family sharing in the anticipation of the joy of this festival. The world around us is a complicated and troubled place. But through Christmas, we keep unbroken contact with the simple message of redemption and love that God sent into the world so many years ago. To many of us, Christmas has a deep religious significance. To all of us, it celebrates the most profound hopes for the comradeship of man.
“Peace on earth, good will to men,” the angels said. “Peace on earth, good will to men,” may we all repeat to our children and those we love, in villages and cities, this Christmas Eve, wherever men may gather.
Jacqueline Kennedy
