Bidens open final White House holiday season with turkey pardons, Christmas tree and 'friendsgiving'

NEW YORK (AP) — President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, on Monday opened their final holiday season at the White House with the annual turkey pardons and Christmas tree arrival before they hosted “friendsgiving” in New York City for U.S. Coast Guard members and their families.

“Simply put, we owe you. We owe your families,” Biden said at U.S. Coast Guard Sector New York on Staten Island. “Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

The meal was part of the first lady's Joining Forces initiative to support military families. “With all my heart, thank you for your service and your sacrifice," she said before the president spoke.

Both then tied dark aprons with the presidential seal around their dress clothes and joined the chow line, where they served a side dish of roasted Brussels sprouts. Celebrity chef Robert Irvine helped with the menu of turkey, ham, side dishes and desserts.

Earlier at the White House, Biden issued the traditional reprieve to turkeys Peach and Blossom who will bypass the Thanksgiving table to live out their days in southern Minnesota.

He welcomed 2,500 guests to the South Lawn under sunny skies as he joked about the birds' fates and sounded wistful about the approaching end of his half-century in Washington power circles.

“It’s been the honor of my life. I’m forever grateful,” Biden said of his single term as president. The reins of power will transfer on Jan. 20 to Republican President-elect Donald Trump, the man Biden defeated four years ago and was battling again until he was pressured to bow out of the race amid concerns about his age and viability. Biden is 82.

Biden relished the brief ceremony with the pardoned turkeys named for the official flower of his home state of Delaware.

“The peach pie in my state is one of my favorites,” he said during remarks that were occasionally interrupted by Peach gobbling atop a table to Biden's right. “Peach is making a last-minute plea,” Biden said at one point.

Biden introduced Peach as a bird who “lives by the motto, ‘Keep calm and gobble on.’” Blossom, the president said, has a different motto: “No fowl play. Just Minnesota nice.”

Peach and Blossom came from the farm of John Zimmerman, near the southern Minnesota city of Northfield. Zimmerman, who has raised about 4 million turkeys, is president of the National Turkey Federation, which has gifted Thanksgiving turkeys to U.S. presidents since the Truman administration after World War II. President Harry Truman, however, preferred to eat the birds. Official pardon ceremonies did not become an annual White House tradition until the administration of President George H.W. Bush in 1989.

With their presidential reprieve, Peach and Blossom will live out their days at Farmamerica, an agriculture interpretative center near Waseca in southern Minnesota. The center's aim is to promote agriculture and educate future farmers and others about agriculture in America.

The first lady also received the official White House Christmas tree that will be decorated and put on display in the Blue Room. The 18.5 foot (5.64 meter) Fraser fir came from a farm in an area of western North Carolina that recently was devastated by Hurricane Helene.

Cartner’s Christmas Tree Farm lost thousands of trees in the storm “but this one remained standing and they named it ‘Tremendous’ for the extraordinary hope that it represents,” Jill Biden said.

Biden began his long goodbye Friday night with a gala in a pavilion erected on the South Lawn for hundreds of friends, supporters, Cabinet secretaries, Democratic donors and long-serving staff members who came to hear from the president and pay tribute, — despite Biden effectively being forced off the Democratic ticket this summer and then watching Vice President Kamala Harris suffer defeat on Nov. 5.

“I’m so proud that we’ve done all of this with a deep belief in the core values of America,” said Biden, sporting a tuxedo for the black-tie event. Setting aside his criticisms of Trump as a fundamental threat to democracy, Biden added his characteristic national cheerleading: “I fully believe that America is better positioned to lead the world today than at any point in my 50 years of public service.”

___ Barrow and Superville reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Steve Karnowski in Minneapolis contributed to this report.