RSS FeedNational Christmas Tree Lights Up This Thursday *updated*
Ed. Note – Dec 2 – This article was corrected.
The National Christmas Tree lighting opening ceremony is this Thursday, December 4 at 5 pm in President’s Park in front of the White House. Downtown DC streets always clog up after work the night of this event so plan your commute accordingly. Note that tickets are required to get a seat for the event and those were distributed by the National Park Service starting November 1 so if you don’t have tickets at this point, the NPS is not the place to call or look. But, you don’t need tickets to see the big kahuna and the other state trees the rest of the days the display is open (through January 1) nor to see the nightly performances [PDF] after the sun goes down. The lights stay on until 11 pm.
This year’s Capitol Christmas tree lights up Tuesday, December 2 at 5 pm on the West Lawn of the US Capitol and it is a 73 foot (post cut height) subalpine fir from the Sapphire Mountains in the Bitterroot National Forest [photo link] in western Montana up against the Montana-Idaho border (closest town: Hamilton, MT).
In other Christmas tree news(!), the White House received their tree by horse drawn carriage yesterday.
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Comments
Actually, “this year’s tree,” is the same one as always, since it is a live tree planted in the ground.
The tree from Montana is the Capitol Christmas Tree, which is going to be lit tonight at 5 PM.
many thanks Flipperman75. we’ll be making some…ahem…corrections to our story later today. we always appreciate our readers being our site’s collective eyes and ears.
readers should check this link about all the different tree lightings around metro DC in the interim because it clearly spells out the differences among all the ceremonies.
I know there are tickets for the seated area—but can’t you still attend the lighting and just stand outside the reserved area?
you might want to check with the National Park Service…I’ve only been after the day of the lighting.
The National Christmas Tree (at the White House) was planted trucked in from PA and planted back in 1973, but the ceremony’s been around since 1923. Back then it was a cut tree. The NPS has all sorts of cool history on its site.
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nice…
any thoughts on places in pq that will be selling live trees? thanks.