President and Mrs. Coolidge hold New Year’s Reception at the White House, January 2, 1928.

As Coolidge expressed it in his daily column at the close of 1930, “We cannot for long reap when we have not sown. We cannot hold what we do not pay for. The law of service cannot be evaded or repealed. Nor is it yet in the power of man under any system of government he can adopt or any organization of society he can form to make this a perfect world. But the ability to make the best of things, to secure progress, to learn from adversity is not to be disparaged or ignored. The creative energy of nature is not diminished but increased by the fallow season. Mankind requires a time for taking stock, for recuperation, for gathering energy for the next advance.

“That is the significance of the new year. We take a new inventory to see what we have, we take new bearings to see where we are, we correct our conduct by new resolutions. After all due allowance for error and relapse, such a course guarantees improvement. Perhaps the best resolve is to live so that next year new resolutions will be unnecessary.”

May 2016 be a year where light overcomes darkness and the results of good work endure!

First, thanks to all my readers, we can take this look back over the previous year. You are a great group! See you in 2016!

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 11,000 times in 2015. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 4 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

President Coolidge lighting the community Christmas tree, 1924.

The Chief Historian for the White House Historical Association has completed a fine essay on the Coolidges and the White House during their stay, 1923-1929. As Mr. Bushong points out, “Throughout the Coolidge administration, Christmas celebrations were a mix of traditional family gatherings and the new community centered public ceremony” centered in the lighting of the community tree on the Ellipse. It was Coolidge who inaugurated that signature custom. Originally for the families and other residents of the District of Columbia, it has become a National Event.

Christmas Day was spent by the Coolidges giving of their time and service to those in need, from the preparation of food baskets at the Salvation Army to visiting the veterans at Walter Reed Hospital. Coolidge once said, “No person was ever honored by what he received. Honor has been the reward for what he gave.” The Coolidges lived that ideal.

While the lighting of the community tree was then a local highlight, the real focus at the Coolidge White House during Christmas came with the singing of carols. Singing and the music of the Marine Band were central to Christmas night with the Coolidges. In 1924, a new carol, “Christmas Bells” was composed by Jason Noble Pierce, the pastor of the Congregational Church in D.C., and dedicated to Grace Coolidge. “Ring, ye, Christmas bells of peace. Ring for days when wars shall cease.” That same night, the 1880 choral piece, “The Angel’s Song at Bethlehem” (setting the account of Luke 2:8-14 to music) was sung and heard from the North Portico of the White House by the thousands gathered there. It was the facts of Christ’s coming, His work, and His living again that made peace and goodwill possible, the Coolidges knew, as the hymn goes,

“Glory to God in the highest!

“And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!

“Glory to God!”

Merry Christmas!

Singing Christmas carols from the North Portico at the White House, 1923.