Maybe you received a really odd Christmas gift, but none of your gifts could possibly compare with the unusual presents that have been given to occupants of the White House. US Presidents have been given some unique items.
Like Richard Nixon receiving a gift of two grains of rice. Not much of a gift, and certainly not enough for a meal. The president was presented with a plush blue velvet box by Pakistani artist S. Nabi Ahmed Rizvi. Alongside the pair of rice grains was a magnifying glass that allowed Nixon to see that the artist had painted portraits on each grain: one of Nixon as a young man in the Navy and one of Nixon as president.
The practice of giving the president of the United States remarkable gifts goes back to the earliest days of our nation. On New Year’s Day, 1802, Thomas Jefferson was presented with one of the cheesiest gifts. The citizens of Cheshire, Massachusetts, gave the president a 1,235-pound wheel of cheese. The cheese was engraved with the words, “Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.”
Winston Churchill gave President Franklin D. Roosevelt a painting by the artist Winston Churchill. In 2003, Argentine President Néstor Kirchner gave President George W. Bush 300 pounds of raw lamb meat. Bush senior was given a Komodo Dragon that was promptly re-gifted to a zoo. And, while visiting Australia, Barack Obama was given an insurance policy (valued at $10) that would pay $50,000 if were eaten by a crocodile.
No matter how strange you think your gifts are, remember that theres always someone (like a president) who has received something more odd.
