Children's Christmas at the White House

Children's Christmas at the White House is a special that aired on the Washington, D.C. based PBS station WETA on December 25, 1970. The special is a recorded version of the annual White House Christmas party hosted by Pat Nixon for the "children of the diplomatic corps" in the East Room on December 20. The party included an extended performance by the cast of Sesame Street. The broadcast was hosted by WETA's John Robbins.
Following an introduction from Pat Nixon, Susan takes the stage and tells the crowd the Sesame Street gang has been looking for Big Bird, who has gotten lost in the halls of the building. Hoping to lure him out, she leads everybody in singing "If You're Happy and You Know It."
Gordon arrives, with no luck finding Big Bird. They do manage to find somebody else - Oscar the Grouch, who gives his usual Christmas greeting of "Bah humbug." He tells them he hasn't been looking for Big Bird, but has instead been scouring the trash cans in the White House kitchen. He also wants to find the President (under the impression that Calvin Coolidge is still in office) with some complaints he has (though he doesn't want any of them to be fixed). He then launches into a performance of "I Love Trash" (lip-syncing to The Sesame Street Book & Record recording).
As Oscar leaves, Bob appears, also unable to find Big Bird after scouring the area. He did run into Mr. Hooper, who Gordon goes to find. While they're gone, Bob and Susan sing "I've Got Two." Gordon returns and has the crowd spell out "HOOPER" to bring in Mr. Hooper. He arrives with his "Super Duper Big Bird Radar-Scope," which will lead them to the bird. It indicates him being in the back of the audience, who yell that Big Bird is instead behind them onstage.
Big Bird makes his grand entrance and tells them he did get lost, but "a very nice man named Mr. Nixon" gave him directions. He shows the group an interesting thing he found along his trip - a long, strange word, leading to a performance of "ABC-DEF-GHI." With the group's time running out, Gordon leads everybody in an abridged version of "Rub Your Tummy." Before heading off, Big Bird gives a quick holiday greeting to everybody (but forgets what holiday it is).
Following the stage show, John Robbins chats briefly with Pat Nixon about the impact of Sesame Street as she boasts some stray Big Bird feathers she's collected from the evening.
File:WHXmas03.jpg|
File:WHXmas05.jpg|
WHXmas08.jpg 
File:WHXmas07.jpg|The cast's onscreen credit at the special's end
==Credits==
*Producer: Michael Hargrove
*Director: David Deutsch
__NOWYSIWYG__
Category:Christmas Appearances
Category:TV Appearances