First family forced to perform for Christmas gifts

Christmas is no day off for the first family, because according to Michelle Obama, everyone has to work it to snag a present from Santa.

The first lady revealed one of the Obamas’ yearly Christmas traditions with friends and family, telling Yahoo! Shine, “Instead of giving gifts, we have sort of a grab bag of gifts … And in order to get your gift from the grab bag — and these are very inexpensive gifts — you have to perform. Sing, dance, hula-hoop, do a skit, do an imitation, it doesn’t matter what, but everybody has to do something.”

Aha! Maybe that’s how Michelle Obama perfected her hula-hooping skills (in 2009 she completed an impressive 142 hoop rotations right in front of reporters’ eyes).

Jill Biden also gave a peek into what Christmas morning looks like in the vice president’s residence, saying that “no one can go downstairs until Joe goes down first … So Joe checks that Santa’s been there and everything’s OK. And then we all go down the steps as a family.”