THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

                        REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
            BEFORE READING "TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS"
                     AT CHILDREN'S CHRISTMAS PARTY
                                    
                             The East Room                           

1:47 P.M. EST

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Give them a hand. Weren't they great? (Applause.) Hello.

THE CHILDREN: Hello. Hi, Bill Clinton.

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Antonio. Welcome to the White House. We're very glad to have you here. Every year, the First Lady and I love to meet with some children about this time and read "The Night Before Christmas" story, because Christmas is really a time for children, isn't it?

THE CHILDREN: Yes.

THE PRESIDENT: And a time when we give gifts to each other and to our children to say how important you are. And it's a very special time for us. You know, Hillary wrote a book about children and families, and just today she gave a great gift -- she gave the money that came in from the book to children's hospitals all across the country, and to other things for children.

And one of the things that we hope will come out of this is that not only all of you here, but all the children all over our country will feel very special; and as Christmas celebrates the birth of baby Jesus, that all the little children in our country will feel that they are very, very special.

So I want you to listen carefully to this story. A lot of you know this story, don't you?

THE CHILDREN: Yes.

THE PRESIDENT: Do you?

MRS. CLINTON: You can chime in.

THE PRESIDENT: So you can chime in. If you know -- if you know any of the lines when I read it, in this wonderful book -- see the pictures, can you see it -- you say the lines, too. Okay? Okay, here we go. "The Visit of St. Nicholas."

(THE PRESIDENT READS "TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS")

END 1:55 P.M. EST