On the Gifts of Christmastime

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President Coolidge receiving Scouts on the South Lawn of the White House, 1926. Photo credit: Library of Congress.

“It seems a very short time ago that I was a boy and in the midst of farm life myself, helping to do the chores at the barn, working in the corn and potato fields, getting in the hay and in the springtime doing what most of you have never had an opportunity to see–making maple sugar.

“I did not have any chance to profit by joining a Scout organization or a 4-H club. That chance ought to be a great help to the boys and girls of the present day. It brings them into association with each other in a way where they learn to think not only of themselves, but of other people. It teaches them to be unselfish. It trains them to obedience and gives them self-control.

First Lady Grace Coolidge presenting gifts in December 1927. Photo credit: Library of Congress.

“A very wise man gave us this motto–‘Do the duty that lies nearest you.’ It seems to me that this is the plan of all your organizations. We need never fear that we shall not be called on to do great things in the future if we do small things well at present. It is the boys and girls who work hard at home that are sure to make the best record when they do away from home…There is a time for play as well as a time for work. But even in play it is possible to cultivate the art of well-doing.

“It is in all these ways that boys and girls are learning to be men and women, to be respectful to their parents, to be patriotic to their country and to be reverent to God. It is because of the great chance that American boys and girls have in all these directions that to them more than to the youth of any other country, there should be a merry Christmas.” — President Calvin Coolidge to the youth of 4-H, the Boy Scouts, and the Lone Scouts, delivered from the White House, December 21, 1925.

Mrs. Coolidge welcoming the Girl Scouts of Troop 42 to the White House, October 1923. Photo credit: Library of Congress.
The Coolidges, dedicating the community Christmas tree on the Ellipse, Washington, D. C. Photo credit: Library of Congress.

Looking for a Last-Minute Gift?

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Pick up your giftable copy of Salient Cal’s America: Reappraising the Harding & Coolidge Era today. It is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, and other booksellers. It is an excellent way not only to introduce the Coolidges to those who may be unfamiliar with them but also provides a rich reference of delightful anecdotes, cultural touchpoints, and historically resonant perspectives which continue to speak since first expressed a century ago. Welcome Cal & Grace to your holiday family gathering this year and include them around your dinner table. Your conversation and company will be all the more abundant!

On Proving Worthy of Future Prosperity

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Photo Credit: Library of Congress

“We have been blessed with much of material prosperity. We shall be better able to appreciate it if we remember the privations others have suffered, and we shall be the more worthy of it if we use it for their relief. We will do well then to render thanks for the good that has come to us, and show by our actions that we have become stronger, wiser, and truer by the chastenings which have been imposed upon us. We will thus prepare ourselves for the part we must take in a world which forever needs the full measure of service. We have been a most favored people. We ought to be a most generous people. We have been a most blessed people. We ought to be a most thankful people.”

Calvin Coolidge, excerpt from the 1923 Thanksgiving Proclamation, November 5, 1923

“We approach that season of the year when it has been the custom for the American people to give thanks for the good fortune which the bounty of Providence, through the generosity of nature, has visited upon them. It is altogether a good custom. It has the sanction of antiquity and the approbation of our religious convictions. In acknowledging the receipt of divine favor, in contemplating the blessings which have been bestowed upon us, we shall reveal the spiritual strength of the nation…Ways have been revealed to us by which we could perform very great service through the giving of friendly counsel, through the extension of financial assistance, and through the exercise of a spirit of neighborly kindliness to less favored peoples. We should give thanks for the power which has been given into our keeping, with which we have been able to render these services to the rest of mankind…As the nation has prospered let all the people show that they are worthy to prosper by rededicating America to the service of God and man.”

Calvin Coolidge, excerpts from the 1924 Thanksgiving Proclamation, November 5, 1924

Our thanks go out to all our readers, fellow Coolidgeans, and especially to everyone who helped bring Salient Cal’s America: Reappraising the Harding & Coolidge Era to final completion on the centennial year Americans chose decisively to return Coolidge to Presidential leadership in his own right. A gratitude-filled Thanksgiving to everyone in Coolidge Country!