AFP relates President Obama’s visit to the Boys and Girls Club:
President Barack Obama got into the Christmas spirit Monday, stopping by a children’s club to read a story and deliver some cookies, with the US capital cloaked in a deep snow.
Obama read aloud from “The Polar Express,” the award-winning Christmas book also made into a film, and joked with youngsters, asking: “Have you guys been good?”
…
When he asked the children why Christmas is celebrated, one of them piped up: “The birth of baby Jesus.”
Obama agreed, adding that “what he symbolizes for people all around the world is the possibility of peace, and people treating each other with respect.”
Christianity Today has this exchange:
Child: I know why we give gifts to other people.
Obama: Why is that?
Child: Because the three wise men gave gifts to baby Jesus.
Obama: That’s exactly right. … You know, the three wise men, if you think about it, here are these guys, they have all this money, they’ve got all this wealth and power, and yet they took a long trip to a manger just to see a little baby. And it just shows you that just because you’re powerful or you’re wealthy, that’s not what’s important. What’s important is what’s — the kind of spirit you have.
So I hope everybody has a spirit of kindness and thoughtfulness, and everybody is really thinking about how can they do for other people — treating them well, because that’s really the spirit of Christmas.