FILE - President Jimmy Carter calls for other performers to join himself, Santa Claus and ice skating star Peggy Fleming for pictures at a White House reception for U.S. Secret Service agents and military aides in Washington, Dec. 22, 1980. Jill Biden is bringing a holiday ice rink to the White House lawn for children to skate and play hockey during the holidays. The first lady was set to announce the rink after sunset on Wednesday. She was to be joined by 1988 Olympic figure skater Brian Boitano and the Snoopy character, among others. The White House says the rink will operate during December. (AP Photo/Dennis Cook, File)
1988 Olympic figure skater Brian Boitano, right, skates next to first lady Jill Biden during the unveiling of the White House Holiday Ice Rink, located at the south panel of the South Lawn of the White House, Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2023, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
David Faria Oliviera and Carlina Justine Ramirez, an Adagio Pairs Team, perform during the unveiling of the White House Holiday Ice Rink, located at the south panel of the South Lawn of the White House, Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2023, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
FILE - President Jimmy Carter calls for other performers to join himself, Santa Claus and ice skating star Peggy Fleming for pictures at a White House reception for U.S. Secret Service agents and military aides in Washington, Dec. 22, 1980. Jill Biden is bringing a holiday ice rink to the White House lawn for children to skate and play hockey during the holidays. The first lady was set to announce the rink after sunset on Wednesday. She was to be joined by 1988 Olympic figure skater Brian Boitano and the Snoopy character, among others. The White House says the rink will operate during December. (AP Photo/Dennis Cook, File)
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1988 Olympic figure skater Brian Boitano, right, skates next to first lady Jill Biden during the unveiling of the White House Holiday Ice Rink, located at the south panel of the South Lawn of the White House, Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2023, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
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David Faria Oliviera and Carlina Justine Ramirez, an Adagio Pairs Team, perform during the unveiling of the White House Holiday Ice Rink, located at the south panel of the South Lawn of the White House, Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2023, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Jill Biden extended her holiday theme of “Magic, Wonder and Joy” to the White House grounds with an ice rink on the South Lawn for children to skate and play hockey in December.
“Who's ready to skate?” she said, after several ice skating performances by , a 1988 Olympic gold medalist, and the comic-strip dog Snoopy, among others. Earlier this week, she inside the executive mansion that she said were designed to help visitors experience the “magic, wonder and joy” of the holidays as they did when they were kids.
The 50-by-70-foot (15.2-by-21.3-meter) rink will operate throughout December, but the White House did not specify days and hours. Washington, D.C.-area schoolchildren and children from families with service members, frontline workers, first responders and teachers will be invited to skate.
The first lady reminisced about skating with her sisters on the frozen canals of the Delaware River when they were growing up in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania.
“We spent hours gliding across the glistening ice, our cheeks pink from the cold," she said. “And in those hours, what was normally an ordinary town and an ordinary bridge, you know, transformed into a bright sparkling landscape, and just glittering as if it were covered in magic.
“That’s how children often see the world in this time of the year, with magic wonder and joy,” she continued. “What's more magical and wonderful and joyful than, you know, being on an ice rink in the South Lawn of the White House. Who knew, right? It's so great to look out the window and to see this down here.”
As he escorted her off the ice, Boitano teased that he had an extra costume in the dressing room in case she wanted to join the show.
“Why not,” Biden said, laughing all the way.
“We could do a really good pair number,” Boitano said. The first lady stepped off the ice, took her front-row seat in the audience and covered her lap with a blanket in the brisk, 30-degree weather.
The and the will provide lessons through their “Learn to Play/Learn to Skate” program, which provides first-time participants with free head-to-toe equipment, weekly sessions and coaching.
This rink is not the first one built on the White House grounds.
In 1980, President and first lady who was buried Wednesday in her hometown of Plains, Georgia, had an ice rink built on the South Lawn for Olympian to perform during White House Christmas receptions.
Other supporters of the new rink include the ɫtv Park Service, the ɫtv Park Foundation and Comcast Spectacor.
