The First Family Joins the Holiday Rush

Gearing up for his final Christmas in the White House, President Clinton attended church Sunday and joined millions of harried Americans in a last-minute Christmas Eve shopping dash before heading off to his friend Vernon Jordan’s house for a party.

“Merry Christmas!” the president called down to shoppers at the Discovery Channel Destination Store at Washington’s MCI Center after browsing through the store’s book and music section.

Clinton, like many other Americans, started Christmas Eve in church before rushing out to make some last-minute purchases before the stores closed for the holidays. The president, with first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton beside him at Foundry Methodist Church, listened to Pastor J. Philip Wogaman celebrate “the 2,000th birthday of the baby Jesus.”

However, Wogaman said that this year “the lights are dim” in Bethlehem, Jesus’ birthplace, and that the “intractable-appearing conflict in Israel calls forth for the grace of God.”

“How does the grace of God come in places like that? It has to come through people,” Wogaman said.

On Saturday, Clinton received a report from another week of unsuccessful peacemaking between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators at the White House.

The president, with a Santa Claus pin fastened to his suit, deflected reporters’ questions on the Middle East and President-elect George W. Bush’s appointment of conservative Sen. John Ashcroft as attorney general on the way out to his limousine: “Oh, it’s Sunday. Come on. It’s Christmas Eve.”

Seconds later, the president ordered his motorcade to stop while he jumped out and greeted a bystander holding a sign that read: “Merry Christmas Mr. President.” Clinton signed the poster before leaving.

After joining daughter Chelsea for some browsing at the Discovery Channel store, Clinton headed to the stores at Union Station, drawing a crowd to the station’s East Hall to watch him browse through the stores and merchandise carts. The president shook hands and posed for pictures with people, including Charles Kraus, owner of the U.S. Mint cart in Union Station.

Kraus said it was his third year having his picture taken with Clinton during his Union Station shopping spree. “Make sure I get it,” he admonished the White House photographer.

Clinton’s shopping spree ended with a couple of books, a CD, a robotic dinosaur and a sweatshirt. He left Union Station carrying a couple of bags from the Appalachian Springs store, but it was not immediately known what he purchased.

Following his annual Christmas tradition, Clinton went to a holiday party at Jordan’s home and planned to attend midnight Mass at the National Cathedral.