Nixon White House Tapes ›Tape 17 › Conversation 017-059

Nixon phone call with Colson on Christmas at the White House

Friday, December 24, 1971 · 11:30 PM–8:43 AM ET · White House Telephone ·5 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President);  Colson, Charles W.Conversation017-059 onTape 17 (tape position 02:28:36–02:33:43)StartFriday, December 24, 1971 at 11:30 PMEndSaturday, December 25, 1971 at 8:43 AMRecording deviceWhite House TelephoneSourceNixon Library record for 017-059 ↗

AI Summary

President Richard M. Nixon and Charles W. Colson discussed the reception and emotional impact of the television program "Christmas at the White House," which was hosted by Julie Nixon Eisenhower. Colson praised the show’s relatable, family-oriented content and described how the program, featuring the President and his family, moved viewers deeply. Nixon expressed satisfaction with the positive feedback and requested an update on the show’s viewership ratings.

Audio

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Transcript (AI-generated)

This transcript was generated automatically by AI (WhisperX) and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Names and numbers are often wrong; speakers are not identified. Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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Hello?
President, I wish you could break your rule.
Are you at the...
I thought you'd be at Midnight Mass.
No, my wife does that for me.
I wanted to get your view on the Julie show.
I didn't see it, of course, but... Well, as I say, I wish you would break your rule and watch yourself on television, because I think that was by far as good, but I've never seen anything that moved me so much.
I'm kind of a hard-boiled, hard-fitting old politician, and I just... And that brought you... That ended with...
The whole show was absolutely spectacular.
I'm glad it was good.
Julie was...
I thought she didn't feel it was quite as good as it should be, but... Well, I wanted to call her.
She's somewhat of a...
I'll tell her that you liked it.
Oh, well, it was the whole thing.
How'd your wife like it?
Well, she was just like I was.
We were both sitting there just...
It finally got me in the Christian spirit.
In fact, like, really, both of us were choking up at that...
What did they use at the end?
I had quite a long interview.
I don't know what part they used.
Well, they had the first 15 minutes was largely Julie talking to Terrell and Russell about the Christmas tree and the decorations and all that.
And previous Christmas, they showed Christmas cards that you had used in other years, talking a little bit about that.
You came in and began talking to me, and I showed that I was adorable, and I needed that in the world.
Couldn't have been done better.
And then, at the end, what Coral said, he was up to it.
Have a good journey next year, and I hope your journey will...
I hope a good journey for you.
I know we'll meet again.
And you sort of looked into the camera and said,
If we're successful, it'll be many happy things to do for many, many people.
And if we're not, we'll just be trying.
And then they went back to Julian and the rest of them came to you again and talked about, and you talked about the meaning of Christmas with Jesus.
I would have to say that in terms of the emotional content of that program, it was far up.
The emotional content was way beyond the day in the life of the president.
And Julie is absolutely, the use of her hands and voice and the way in which she handles herself, I'm telling you, is something to be really, really thankful for.
I think the combination of the two programs is probably pretty good.
The one gave it a feeling of...
a massive amount of work, you know, I guess, a broad scope of the presence, et cetera.
And tonight was a family that every American could identify with.
Julie referred to it as what she was buying you for Christmas.
It was kind of a, it was a down-to-earth, you know, kind of a touch that people couldn't understand.
She kind of just looked up at that and said,
It was bringing the first family into kind of everyone's life in a way that people... Well, I think anybody watching it would immediately identify with you as family.
That's good.
That's the first.
You talked about the one train going to Whittier, the Riverside.
Your answers were sharp and crisp.
But there was a great deal of feeling to it.
It was a very emotional, very emotional person.
Oh, that's good.
Good.
I just think it was a second accident.
Well, we hope we, uh, hope a few people saw it.
Well, I'll be anxious.
10-30.
Well, it, it, it depends.
I don't know if they had a movie or something like that.
I think they might have had a ticket, aren't they?
They ran it in advance.
They ran it in the, uh, I think the best subset of it.
For about two minutes on the network A and the X-775.
Oh, good.
They also ran about three minutes on the local TV, and they had to go right over the network B and the X-775.
I took a lot of people to it.
We'll have the ratings tomorrow.
But I congratulate you and your family.
Okay.
Well, take a rest.

NARA Description

President Richard M. Nixon and Charles W. Colson talked on the telephone on an unknown date, sometime between 11:30 pm on December 24, 1971 and 8:43 am on December 25, 1971. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 017-059 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 17-59

Date: Unknown between December 24 and December 25, 1971
Time: Unknown between 11:30 pm and 8:43 am
Location: White House Telephone

The President talked with Charles W. Colson.

     Colson's location

     Julie Nixon Eisenhower's television show
           -“Christmas at the White House”
           -Praise from Colson
                 -Patricia Colson
           -Charles B. Kuralt
           -Past Christmas
           -Dogs
           -Kuralt
           -Ending
                 -Strong emotional content
           -Thelma C. (“Pat”) Nixon
           -The President's interview
           -Effect
           -Ratings
                 -Coverage of show on local and network news

Also recorded on December 25, 1971

  • 017-051 9:32 PM · 3 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Hobart D. Lewis talked on the telephone from 9:32 pm to 9:35 pm.
  • 017-052 9:35 PM · 6 min — Julie Nixon Eisenhower and Ann Davis talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 9:35 pm and 11:17 pm.
  • 017-053 9:35 PM · 8 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 9:35 pm and 11:17 pm.
  • 017-054 9:35 PM · 9 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 9:35 pm and 11:17 pm.
  • 017-055 11:17 PM · 6 min — President Richard M. Nixon and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman talked on the telephone from 11:17 pm to 11:22 pm.
  • 017-056 11:22 PM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 11:22 pm and 11:26 pm.
  • 017-057 11:26 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon, White House operator, and Rose Mary Woods talked on the telephone from 11:26 pm to 11:28 pm.
  • 017-058 11:28 PM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 11:28 pm and 11:30 pm.

All 57 conversations from December 25, 1971 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 017-059, December 25, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/017-059 (accessed September 18, 2026).