[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1993, Book II)]
[December 10, 1993]
[Pages 2150-2153]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Interview on ``The Home Show''
December 10, 1993

    Gary Collins. The President of the United States, ladies and 
gentlemen.
    The President. Gary.
    Sarah Purcell. Hello, Mr. President, how are you?
    The President. How are you? Glad to see you.
    Ms. Purcell. Pleasure to meet you.
    The President. Thank you.
    Ms. Purcell. Thank you. Welcome to your own home.
    The President. Here we are.
    Mr. Collins. By the way, have you done all your shopping yet?
    The President. No, I haven't even started.
    Mr. Collins. Oh, yes, we know what you're going to get, though.
    The President. You do?
    Mr. Collins. Well, it's bigger than a breadbox but smaller than a 
bus.
    Hillary Clinton. Now, don't give it away.
    Mr. Collins. Oh, I'm sorry.
    Ms. Purcell. You know how these men are----
    Mr. Collins. That's good--[inaudible]--what are you getting----
    The President. I accept.
    Hillary Clinton. He seems very happy.
    The President. Hi, Socks.
    Ms. Purcell. Can you give us any hints about what your plans are for 
a gift for----
    The President. No, I wouldn't do that.
    Ms. Purcell. We saw your last year's gifts.
    The President. I have made a decision. Do you like that?
    Mr. Collins. Well, somebody told us that you shop Christmas Eve, is 
that correct? Do you like that?
    The President. I do two things actually, though. At least in the 
past I have. When we lived in Arkansas, I had a little closet that was 
just mine, and I shopped all year long for everybody that I knew, just a 
little bit here and there. And I'd travel around, and I'd buy something, 
and I shoved it all in the closet. And

[[Page 2151]]

then about 10 days before Christmas, I'd take it out and organize it. 
And then I would find out what I hadn't done, and then I'd go out the 
day before Christmas and shop.
    Ms. Purcell. Now, who did your wrapping, or did you do the wrapping?
    The President. Well, the people who worked at the Governor's mansion 
did some of it, and then I did some of it. I did a lot of it myself.
    Ms. Purcell. Are you pretty good?
    The President. Chelsea and I would do a lot at the end. I'm pretty 
good actually.
    Ms. Purcell. Yes.
    The President. I'm not bad.
    Mr. Collins. I just hate it. I would walk a mile rather than wrap a 
package.
    The President. Well, you know, at the end of the--the last 2 or 3 
days I get in the Christmas spirit in a big way, and I do a lot of that 
stuff.
    Mr. Collins. Is that starting to build for you now? I mean, first 
Christmas in the White House as President.
    The President. But really, I become like a little boy again around 
Christmastime. I don't want to sleep. I just want to, you know, do 
things.
    Mr. Collins. This has really been a year for you folks, hasn't it? I 
mean, all the things that have been going on, the health reform, NAFTA, 
the Brady bill. I mean, the list goes on and on, and it just seems 
you're just getting started. And the polls seem to reflect kind of a 
turnaround in the feelings about the White House and what the effort is 
here. It must give you a tremendous sense of pleasure.
    The President. Well, when we took office, you know, there was so 
much to be done and such a huge wall of cynicism that we had to pierce. 
And you know, when you start really changing things, there are going to 
be a lot of broken things around and about. So we knew it would be 
tough, but it was really gratifying to come to the end of the year and 
to see these ratings come out saying that I had more success than any 
President in the last 40 years in the first year and things like that. I 
think people are beginning to see, well, the economy's getting better 
and the country's moving. I'm very, very grateful for it.
    Mr. Collins. So it's going to be a great message this Christmas.
    The President. It's going to be a happy Christmas at our place.
    Mr. Collins. What do you like about it most? I mean, what's the 
highlight of Christmas for you--if you had to pick one thing?
    The President. If I had to pick one thing, it would be our family's 
sort of renewed sense of togetherness. It happens every year. Just the 
sense of gratitude we feel, it really kind of comes together, we feel. 
We try to remember what Christmas is really a celebration of, and it 
brings us closer together.
    Ms. Purcell. You come from a single-parent family, and I know that 
Christmas probably is a lot different for you now. How do you feel about 
those changes in your life? And how does it mean----
    The President. Well, I'm just--I'm very grateful. I'm extremely 
grateful to my mother, who was widowed three times in her life, a very 
brave lady. And she did a good job for me and for my brother. We're 
grateful to her. And I think it's real important, as Hillary and I go 
across the country and try to get more families to stay together and 
more intact families and support more responsibility for fathers, to 
point out that there are an awful lot of single parents out there--
mostly women but some men--who have done a superb job, who've been 
fanatically loyal to their children, who've made great sacrifices for 
their children. You know, if every parent in this country, whether there 
was a two-parent family or single-parent family, had the internal 
fortitude and the external skills to put their children first in their 
lives, the problems in this Nation would drop dramatically in a decade. 
Ten years from now you wouldn't recognize this country.
    Ms. Purcell. I absolutely agree.
    Mr. Collins. If we could just keep the spirit of Christmas going a 
little bit beyond New Year's, we'd have remarkable results.
    We talked about earlier tradition. We talked about the food that 
you're going to share on Christmas Day and so forth. And we waited for 
you to arrive because I understand, and we have a good source here, that 
on Christmas Eve part of the fun is doing carols and acting out roles. 
We heard that you're awfully good.
    Hillary Clinton. He's a good singer, too.
    Mr. Collins. Is he?
    Ms. Purcell. Is he a good singer?
    The President. I love Christmas carols.
    Ms. Purcell. And you act out the parts in the carols, from what I 
understand. Somebody's Rudolph and someone's----

[[Page 2152]]

    Mr. Collins. What's one of his big hits?
    Hillary Clinton. Well, ``The Twelve Days of Christmas,'' you have 12 
different things to do. So, that's a special thing.
    The President. I'm a very good partridge in a pear tree. [Laughter]
    Mr. Collins. Can you give us an example?
    Hillary Clinton. We've never known quite how to act that out, so 
it's different every year.
    The President. Maids a-milking, you know. Swans swimming. [Laughter]
    Mr. Collins. We'll be back with the Twelve Days of Christmas.
    Hillary Clinton. What is it, nine lords a-leaping?
    The President. I can't believe I did--yes----
    Ms. Purcell.  We'll take a break and be right back as soon as we can 
remember them all.

[At this point, the network took a commercial break.]

    Ms. Purcell. [Inaudible]--but they actually have, and then you had 
something that you wanted to present them with, didn't you?
    Carol Duvall. Well, I do feel a bit like it's bringing coals to 
Newcastle to bring you a Christmas ornament after looking at all these 
gorgeous, gorgeous trees. But we did know that you have an official 
White House heart ornament that a lot of the quilters around the country 
had made. Well, we wanted to get into the act, but I know that a lot of 
our ladies don't all sew, they don't all quilt. So, I tried to copy the 
idea with a nonsewing one. And this is our little ornament for you.
    Mr. Collins. That's a little ornament. Take a look at it. All right, 
there it is, and here we go.
    Ms. Duvall. Now, you're supposed to turn it around to the other 
side.
    Mr. Collins. Turn it around.
    Hillary Clinton. Oh!
    The President. That's great.
    Mr. Collins. Oh, I remember that.
    Hillary Clinton. That's so neat.
    Mr. Collins. Mr. President, if you can hold that real close over 
your shoulder, we'll get a----
    Ms. Duvall. They've got a shot of it. I'll have to tell you that was 
before this meeting, so I had to cut that out of a magazine. But it was 
a nice picture of you.
    Hillary Clinton. Oh, thank you. We'll put that on our personal tree.
    The President. We've been collecting these ornaments, you know, for 
a very long time now.
    Ms. Purcell. And I know that the two of you have been giving a lot 
of thought to this being your first year in the White House, your first 
Christmas in the White House. And I know you must have some special 
thoughts of things you might wish for the Nation for the New Year and 
for the holidays. Would you like to start, Mrs. Clinton?
    Hillary Clinton. Well, I just wish that the feeling of Christmas and 
the meaning of Christmas could find a place in the heart of everyone in 
the country and that it wouldn't be just seasonal, but it would go on 
and on and help change the way we treat each other and live together.
    The President. My hope is that we will achieve more peace on Earth 
next year, peace in the Middle East, relief of tensions in other places 
in the world, but mostly that the American people will find a way to 
bring peace to our own streets, our own homes, our own communities. Our 
Nation is too violent. It makes a mockery of all the things we say we 
believe. It is turning the joy of childhood into a tragedy for too many 
millions of children. And I'm going to work real hard next year to have 
more peace on this piece of Earth that we inhabit in the United States.
    Mr. Collins. Well, I don't know how you can work any harder than 
you've worked this year.
    Ms. Purcell. Absolutely.
    Mr. Collins. With the surge in popularity, the people turning to the 
Government to say, ``please help us; it looks like we can't do this 
ourselves,'' are you going to feel much more bolder next year in terms 
of your campaigns and----
    The President. Well, I don't know if we can get any more done than 
we did this year, but I think we can. I think we can move forward on 
health care, on crime and violence, and on reform of the welfare system 
to move more people into permanent jobs, which I think will strengthen 
families. Those are the three things we're going to be----
    Ms. Purcell. Two enormous jobs to tackle, but thank you so much for 
sharing this with us. We really appreciate here at ``The Home Show''----

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    Mr. Collins. We wish you the very, very best holiday.
    Ms. Purcell. And thank you for sharing it with us.
    The President. Thank you.

Note: The interview began at 11:49 a.m. in the Diplomatic Reception Room 
at the White House.