Here’s How President Joe Biden Will Spend His Christmas 2021

The Bidens are looking to stay at the White House for their first Christmas since Joe Biden was elected as the U.S. president in 2020.

During his first year in office, Biden has spent more than 25 weekends at his home either his home in Wilmington or his beach house in Rehoboth, Delaware. The president’s decision to spend Christmas at the White House comes as a surprise after he previously compared the White House to a “gilded cage.”

“Living in the White House, as you've heard other presidents who have been extremely flattered to live there, has -- it's a little like a gilded cage in terms of being able to walk outside and do things," Biden said a month into his presidency during a CNN Town Hall.

Biden will also skip a family tradition of traveling to the U.S. Virgin Islands to celebrate the New Year. His brother James owns property on Water Island where Biden has celebrated the New Year’s holidays nearly every year since 2008. Instead, he will be spending some time between Christmas and New Year’s in Delaware, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said, as reported by AP News.

Biden’s holiday plans come as the White House said it plans to hold “open houses” where people can see First Lady Jill Biden’s Christmas decorations instead of holiday parties. The White House usually hosts Christmas parties and VIP events beginning in the middle of December, but the COVID-19 pandemic cut the holiday celebration.

Jill Biden revealed the Christmas decorations inside the White House on Twitter in late November. The decorations, which followed the theme “Gifts from the Heart,” featured an 18-foot Fraser fir decorated with white doves and silver ornaments.

The White House’s State Dining Room is also adorned with a gingerbread house featuring a hospital, gas station, school, post office and grocery store as part of a nod to frontline workers.

“The things we hold sacred unite us and transcend distance, time, and even the constraints of a pandemic: faith, family, and friendship; a love of the arts, learning, and nature; gratitude, service, and community; unity and peace,” the Bidens wrote in the 2021 White House holiday guidebook.