Biden, 80, avoids taking traditional Christmas Eve calls from children about Santa –

Joe Biden declined to take phone calls from children about Santa’s whereabouts on Christmas Eve – something the president has traditionally done in recent years.

Instead, First Lady Dr. Jill Biden could be seen picking up the phone while sitting in front of a Christmas tree on Christmas Eve. 

‘It’s almost time to set out the cookies and get the reindeers’ carrots ready — NORAD Command just said Santa is on his way to your neighborhood!’ she tweeted on Saturday evening. 

There was no explanation from the White House as to why the 71-year-old first lady was the one making the calls rather than her 80-year-old husband, however during last year’s event there was an awkward exchange when one parent used the phonecall to insult the commander-in-chief. 

Biden – who at 80 is the oldest president in history – has also faced questions about whether he is mentally-fit for office after a series of gaffes.  

First Lady Dr. Jill Biden could be seen making the calls instead of her husband while sitting in front of a Christmas tree on Saturday night

Rather than make the phone calls, 80-year-old President Biden could be decorating a tree

A dad named Jared beaming in from Oregon said ‘Merry Christmas’ and ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ – code on the right for ‘f**k Joe Biden’ – after his kids told the president what they wanted from Santa Claus. 

Biden seemed unphased at the time. ‘Let’s Go Brandon, I agree,’ the president said in response. 

This year, Biden posted a picture of him and his wife decorating a Christmas tree at the White House. It is not clear when the picture was taken. 

‘Just a few finishing touches! Hope you and your loved ones are having a great Christmas Eve,’ the president wrote. 

President Joe Biden and First lady Jill Biden read to patients and families at Children’s National Hospital, in Washington, D.C. on Friday. First ladies have been reading stories to the hospital’s patients at Christmastime since First Lady Bess Truman held the position

President Joe Biden gestures during a holiday visit to patients and their families on Friday

A dad told President Joe Biden (right) ‘Let’s Go Brandon!’ during the annual NORAD Santa-tracking call alongside First Lady Jill Biden (left) in 2021, pictured above from last year

Presidents have traditionally been known to take calls from children on Christmas Eve since 1955 when a misprinted advertisement in a Colorado Springs newspaper directed kids to call Santa at the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) Operations Center.

The director of operations at the time, Colonel Harry Shoup, ordered his staff to give all children who called a ‘current location’ of Santa Claus. 

The tradition has continued every year since, with the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) taking over the tracking of Santa in 1958.

Every president since Dwight D. Eisenhower has participated in the tradition and it is not clear if there has ever been a time when a president did not take these calls. 

President Biden has not had much success with phone calls recently. There was a 17 second gap when he called into the Thanksgiving Day parade on  speaking to NBC’s Dylan Dreyer

Biden has not had too much success when it comes to public phone calls recently. 

Last month the president and first lady suffered awkward technical difficulties while calling in to NBC’s Thanksgiving Day parade broadcast. 

Reporter Dylan Dreyer was forced to wait an excruciating 17 seconds for a reply to her excited ‘Hello Mr President’ while reporting from the New York City parade in Manhattan. 

Before Biden addressed her, the present could be heard talking to his wife with the pair apparently expressing confusion over the connection issues. 

Biden stepping away from the Christmas Eve phone call tradition rounds off a year full of gaffes for the 46th president at a time when he is relatively shielded from the media.

As the year ends, President Biden has only given seven formal interviews with professional journalists, down from 15 last year.

He’s also held five solo press conferences in 2022 down from six in 2021. By contrast, Former President Trump delivered 18 and 19 respectively, over the same time period.

In February, Biden suggested that a Russian ‘minor incursion’ into Ukraine may not provoke a response from the West.

‘Are you effectively giving Putin permission to make a small incursion into the country?’ a gobsmacked reporter asked.

The president laughed and said, ‘Good question. That’s how it did sound like, didn’t it?’

In September, Biden declared, ‘the pandemic is over’ on 60 Minutes, something his own Chief Medical Advisor Anthony Fauci disagreed with.

During a packed room at a White House Conference, Biden looked for Rep. Jackie Walorski who had tragically been killed in a car accident in August. 

‘Jackie, are you here? Where’s Jackie? She must not be here,’ he said to the room.

Biden had even personally called Walorski’s family almost immediately after the tragedy to express his condolences ye appear to have forgotten. 

In October, he warned that the world was on the precipice of nuclear ‘Armageddon.’ The White House followed up to stress there was no new intelligence to cause alarm.

In November, Biden claimed his late son Beau died while serving in Iraq.

Beau, sadly died from brain cancer at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Maryland.

And just last week, the president claimed that as vice president he awarded his own uncle, Frank H. Biden, a Purple Heart for his heroism in the Battle of the Bulge during World War II.

That story is not only false, but also impossible as Frank H. Biden died in 1999, almost a decade before Biden became VP.