National Christmas Tree Lighting – Historical Background

On December 24, 1913 in the East Plaza of the U.S. Capitol, the Washington Community Christmas Tree was lit for the first time.  A crowd of about twenty thousand attended the occasion. President Marine Band performed and was accompanied by a chorus of one thousand singers.  The event was organized by Woodrow Wilson and the Vice President, Thomas Marshal.

In 1923, President Calvin Coolidge lit the Community Christmas Tree on the Ellipse, exactly south of the White House.  The Christmas tree was given by Middlebury College in the President's home state of Vermont.  Though Calvin Coolidge refused to speak at the event, he switches the light of the tree.  The organizers later announced the tree to be the "National Christmas Tree."

A live Christmas tree makes a wonderful holiday decoration in any home.  For those of us who choose to display a live Christmas tree, artificial will never do!  The smell of a live Christmas tree is wonderful and it brings out the Christmas spirit in all of us.  Your live Christmas tree will be hand selected and cut fresh upon order, and will be carefully packaged and shipped right to you.  Purchasing a live Christmas tree has never been so easy.

From the middle age traditions, the Christmas tree history moves from evergreen trees being decorated outdoors to the trees moved indoors but undecorated, to indoor trees decorated and lit. The first trees indoors were also hung upside down. 16th-century Germany fir trees were decorated, indoors and out, with apples, roses, gilded candies, and colored paper. This tradition is getting closer to the Christmas tree traditions we currently practice.

In 17th century, Christmas tree was decorated with apples, nuts and strips of red paper. That was when the royal families began to hold the idea of a Christmas tree. It took some years for the Christmas tree tradition to be accepted in the United States. In 1856, President Franklin Pierce first introduced the Christmas tree to the White House. President Calvin Coolidge first lit the, now famous, national Christmas tree in 1923 on the White House lawn. In 1979 President Jimmy Carter only lit the crowning star on top of the National Christmas Tree to honor American hostages.

Today people celebrate Christmas by decorating their trees with various types of lights and ornaments. There are beautiful themed Christmas trees with flowers, ribbons, ornaments and lights. Today we also have a huge number of choices as to whether we want a real or artificial tree, whether it is pre lit, what type of tree, what size of a tree, and so on. There are artificial trees now being made that look and feel so real that you need to wear gloves to put them together. These trees also offer options that are pre-lit with white and colored lights that can change depending on what button you press on your remote. A tree with a remote is a Christmas tree every man needs.