WATCH: First Lady Rosalynn Carter Blows Off Brutal Insult From GOP Rival’s Son — With Christmas Cheer

Then-First Lady Rosalynn Carter had a festive way of blowing off a reporter’s question about a brutal insult against then-President Jimmy Carter from his GOP rival’s son.

Nowadays, trouble with the presidential transition means the incitement of deadly riots and years of criminal court cases. Things were a little bit different when First Lady Carter — who passed away recently at the age of 96 years old — was preparing to leave the White House after her husband’s loss to then-President-Elect Ronald Reagan.

But some things were the same — there was drama in the transition and a bomb-throwing GOP president’s son attacking the Democratic president.

ABC World News Tonight covered the details, including the uneventful electoral count and First Lady Carter’s characteristically Southern response to Ron Reagan Jr. saying President Carter has “the morals of a snake”:

MAX ROBINSON: Well, Ronald Reagan relaxed today at his ranch near Santa Barbara and the state capitals across the nation like here in Indianapolis. Members of the Electoral College formally elected Reagan president of the United States. There were no last minute switches and loyalties that cast their votes. The final tally was the one predetermined in the general election November 4th. Reagan 489 electoral votes. President Carter 49. Frank?

FRANK REYNOLDS: Ever since the day after the November election, the major story in this town has been the transition from the Carter to the Reagan administration.

But there has also been news of a sort involving the problems of transition from one first family to the next. More on that from White House correspondent Sam Donaldson.

SAM DONALDSON: The Carters and the Reagan’s began patching up campaign hard feelings late last month. But in the last few days, a large rip has developed in the patch.

On Friday, reporter Helen Thomas quoted sources as saying Nancy Reagan couldn’t understand why the Carters don’t move out of the White House early to make room for the Reagan decorator to get started on redoing the family quarters.

White House sources were furious. Mrs. Reagan’s press secretary, Robin Orr, said Nancy Reagan had not suggested the Carters move out early. Only that when the Reagans time is up, they might move out early as a favor to their successor’s decorator.

On Saturday, Robin Orr resigned as Mrs. Reagan’s press secretary, and the Reagans went back to the White House with their decorator, but only to look, not touch.

We can’t move in until the 20th.

Then today, an interview given by the Reagans 22 year old son Ron surfaced in which he said he will not shake hands with President Carter because he is quoted as saying “Carter would have told his mother to get reelected. He has the morals of a snake.”.

Today, as she showed off the White House Christmas tree. Rosalynn Carter said she had received a telephone call from Nancy Reagan.

FIRST LADY ROSALYNN CARTER: She called me to say that she did not say the things that had been reported, and I told her that I had not worried about it.

REPORTER: Were you troubled by the somewhat less than gracious remarks by President elect Reagan’s son, that he wouldn’t shake (hands with President Carter)?

FIRST LADY ROSALYNN CARTER: I think, let’s talk about Christmas! (laughs)

SAM DONALDSON: So the Carters won’t move out until January 20th. Nancy Reagan is looking for a new press secretary for herself and perhaps for the Reagans’ son, Ron.

And here at the White House, where they’re doing nothing but talking about Christmas, not a creature is stirring. Certainly no one’s interior decorator. Sam Donaldson, ABC News, the White House.

A lot has changed since then, as evidenced by this passage from a UPI article about Ron Reagan’s remarks:

Ronald Prescott Reagan said he would ‘never forget the way (Carter) called my father a racist and a warmonger over and over again,’ he was quoted as saying in an interview published in this week’s edition of New York Magazine.

‘Carter would have sold his mother to get re-elected,’ the younger Reagan was quoted as saying. ‘He has the morals of a snake.’

The president-elect’s son, a ballet dancer in New York, said he was aware of public speculation that he might be homosexual and called the idea ‘laughable.’

‘The idea that anyone would think dancing is effeminate,’ he said in the interview, ‘I’ll tell you this — it’s a lot more athletic than playing baseball.’

Reagan and his new wife, Doria, live a spartan existence in a Greenwich Village fourth-floor walkup while he works with the Joffrey II ballet company. Doria works part-time for a publisher.

Watch above via The Museum of Classic Chicago Television.