Key and Obama together for Christmas?

ERIN SIEGAL/UN

CHRISTMAS IN HAWAII: President Obama and Mr Key are both heading to the islands for the festive season.

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Prime Minister John Key usually struggles to get face-time with President Barack Obama, but chances are the two could bump into each other on Waikiki Beach in the next week or so.

Both are taking time-out in Hawaii where it could get crowded as both families travel with the kids and their own body guards, making it hard to look casual.

Earlier this week Mr Key told a radio audience he was getting away to his holiday home in Hawaii.

''I'm going to Maui  where are you going?'' Mr Key asked his boisterous radio hosts.

He would keep working, he added.  

''The Muppets in the background send it all to me ...  maybe not on Christmas Day.''

President Obama's 10 day holiday is a little more conditional and yesterday he threatened to stay in Washington until the Senate passed his health care legislation.

US media claim it's a bid to turn up the heat on senators, fearful they might get trapped in the snowbound capital for Christmas.

Latest news out of Washington suggests the Senate will pass the bill on Christmas Eve morning - so the president can still kick sand with Mr Key.

In remarks released by the White House, First Lady Michelle Obama was asked by children how this Christmas would be different from last year.

''Well, it will be easier to get on the plane than last year.''

The Obamas will be staying in Kailua, outside of Honolulu while the Key family will be on Maui.

Mrs Obama said they would be doing the same things they usually do.

''Every year, ever since the kids were born and even before, we go to Hawaii, because that's where the President is from. So we go with a group of friends. So as soon as all the work here is done, we'll go there.''

The actual departure time for Air Force One is kept secret.

Mr Key flew out on a scheduled Air New Zealand flight.

- © Fairfax NZ News