"The message of Christmas is always important, but it’s especially important through tough times, like the ones we’ve been through the past few years. The pandemic has taken so much from us. We’ve lost so much time with one another. We’ve lost so many people — people we loved. Over a million lives lost in America alone. That’s a million empty chairs breaking hearts in homes all across the country. Our politics has gotten so angry, so mean, so partisan. And too often we see each other as enemies, not as neighbors; as Democrats or Republicans, not as fellow Americans. We’ve become too divided. But as tough as these times have been, if we look a little closer, we see bright spots all across the country: the strength, the determination, the resilience that’s long defined America."