US President Joe Biden began his final holiday season at the White House with the usual release of two turkeys, who would skip the Thanksgiving dinner and live out their lives in southern Minnesota. The 82-year-old President invited 2500 visitors to the South Lawn under sunny skies on Monday (local time), cracking jokes about Peach and Blossom’s destinies and sounding nostalgic tones about the final weeks of his presidency after a half-century in Washington DC power circles.

“It has been the greatest honour of my life. “I’m forever grateful,” Biden remarked, noting his imminent departure on January 20, 2025. That’s the day Republican President-elect Donald Trump takes office, the guy Biden fought four years ago and was battling again until he was forced to withdraw from the race due to worries about his age and viability. Until inauguration day, the President and First Lady Jill Biden will maintain a packed schedule of events that will serve as a protracted farewell. In December, the White House hosts holiday parties for everyone from West Wing workers to members of Congress and the White House press corps. Biden enjoyed the brief ceremony with the pardoned turkeys, named for the official flower of his home state of Delaware.

“The peach pie in my state is one of my favourites,” he remarked during remarks interrupted by Peach munching on the table to Biden’s right. “Peach is making a last-minute plea,” Biden said at one point, prompting amusement from an overflow gathering that included cabinet members, White House personnel and their families, as well as youngsters from 4H and Future Farmers of America programs.

Blossom, he explained, has a different motto: “No fowl play.” “Just Minnesota nice.” Peach and Blossom come from John Zimmerman’s farm near the southern Minnesota city of Northfield. Zimmerman, who has grown almost 4 million turkeys, leads the National Turkey Federation, which has given Thanksgiving turkeys to US presidents since President Harry Truman’s administration following World War II. However, Truman liked eating the birds.

Official pardon ceremonies became an annual White House tradition under George HW Bush’s presidency in 1989. With their presidential pardon, Peach and Blossom will spend their final days at Farmamerica, an agriculture interpretive centre in Waseca in southern Minnesota. The center’s mission is to promote and educate future farmers and others about agriculture in the United States. Later that day, Jill Biden accepted delivery of the official White House Christmas tree, which will be on display in the Blue Room. The Bidens were then scheduled to travel to New York City for an evening “Friendsgiving” at a Coast Guard station on Staten Island.