National Christmas Tree (United States)
The National Christmas Tree is a large evergreen tree located in the northeast quadrant of the Ellipse near the White House in Washington, D.C. Each year since 1923, the tree has been decorated as a Christmas tree. Every year, early in December, the tree is traditionally lit by the president and first lady of the United States. Every president since Franklin D. Roosevelt has also made formal remarks during the tree lighting ceremony.
Since 1954, this event has marked the start of month-long festivities known as the Pageant of Peace. The line of smaller trees representing the U.S. states, the five U.S. territories, and the District of Columbia around the National Christmas Tree is referred to as the Pathway to Peace.
Beginnings of the tradition
1923 tree
The idea of a decorated, outdoor national Christmas tree originated with Frederick Morris Feiker. Feiker was a highly educated engineer who had been a technical journalist for General Electric from 1906 to 1907 and editor of Electrical World and Electrical Merchandising from 1915 to 1921.In 1921, Feiker joined the personal staff of United States secretary of commerce Herbert Hoover as a press aide. The Society for Electrical Development, an electrical industry trade group, was looking for a way to encourage people to purchase more electric Christmas lights and thus use electricity, and Feiker suggested that President Calvin Coolidge personally light a tree as a way of giving Christmas lights prominence and social cachet. Vermont Republican senator Frank L. Greene accompanied Feiker to the White House, where they successfully convinced Coolidge to light the tree.
Feiker arranged for Paul Moody, president of Middlebury College in Vermont, to donate a tall balsam fir as the first National Christmas Tree. Middlebury College alumni paid to have it shipped via express to Washington. The branches on the lower of the tree were damaged in transit, so cut branches from a local evergreen were tied to the tree to restore its appearance.
Feiker put together a group of local civic organizations to erect the tree in the center of the Ellipse and decorate it, and the U.S. electrical industry donated $5,000 worth of electrical cables. The site for the tree was personally approved by Grace Coolidge. Arrangements were also made to have 3,000 city school children present to sing Christmas carols and the United States Marine Band to play music. The National Broadcasting Company agreed to broadcast the event on radio. The tree was decorated with more than 2,500 electric bulbs in red, white, and green donated by the Electric League of Washington.
At 3 p.m. on December 24, 1923, a 100-voice choir from the First Congregational Church assembled on the South Portico of the White House and began a two-hour concert of Christmas carols. At 5 p.m. on Christmas Eve, President Coolidge touched a button at the foot of the tree which lit the lights and electric candles adorning the tree, but he did not speak. A searchlight from the nearby Washington Monument was trained on the tree to help illuminate it as well. The Coolidge family invited citizens of the city to sing Christmas carols on the Ellipse after dark. Between 5,000 and 6,000 people thronged the park, joined by 3,000 more people by 9 p.m. The crowds were joined by the Epiphany Church and First Congregational Church choirs, which sang carols, and the Marine Band, which played Christmas-themed music. The singing ended shortly before midnight. After the white residents of the city had dispersed, African American residents of the city were permitted on the park grounds to see the National Christmas Tree. An outdoor Christian worship service was held, and a mass choir composed of signing groups from area community centers sang more Christmas carols. An illuminated Christian cross was flashed on the Washington Monument, to which men dressed as shepherds walked from the National Christmas Tree.
1924 tree
The 1924 ceremony changed significantly. In April 1924, Coolidge gave a speech to the American Forestry Association in which he criticized cutting down trees for use as Christmas decorations. Feiker believed this was the end of the Christmas tree lighting ceremony, but his wife suggested that a live tree be used instead. Feiker, accompanied by T. H. Ormesby of the Society for Electrical Development and Republican Representative Hamilton Fish II of New York, extended the invitation to light the tree to Coolidge on December 6, which he again accepted.Will H. Hays, chairman of the Republican National Committee, was also chairman of Amawalk Nursery, and Hays arranged for a live, 30-year-old, Norway spruce to be delivered to the capital. The tree arrived in the city on December 13 and was planted on December 17 on the west side of Sherman Plaza — a patio, garden, and public square just south of the Treasury Building and its adjacent Alexander Hamilton Place. The tree was planted by the American Forestry Association and decorated with 1,000 red, white, and green lights and white electric candles again provided by the Electric League of Washington. The organization donated the strings of lights to the federal government. Power was provided by the Potomac Electric Power Company via an open manhole on the plaza. The tree was now called the National Community Christmas Tree. The Community Center Department of the District of Columbia Public Schools coordinated the choirs for the event and the United States Army Band provided music.
Coolidge threw a switch at 8 p.m. to light the tree. It was the only year a switch was used; before and since, a button has been pushed. Although the president did not address the people, he and Grace Coolidge stayed to sing Christmas carols with the large crowd of several thousand. Jason Noble Pierce, pastor of the First Congregational Church, wrote a new Christmas carol, "Christmas Bells," which was dedicated to Grace Coolidge. The 70-voice First Congregational Church choir sang the carol for the Coolidges, accompanied by buglers and flute provided by the U.S. Army Band.
1927 to 1933 trees
Over the next few years, the annual National Community Christmas Tree lighting ceremony changed in only minor ways such as the timing and the use of illumination. The lighting ceremony was pushed back to 6 p.m. in 1925 to better accommodate children's bedtimes. In 1926, a flare was fired into the air as the tree was illuminated, a tradition which occurred for several years. In 1927, a bronze marker was placed at the base of the tree, declaring it the National Community Christmas Tree. The tree was decorated with improved lighting strings as well as with 2,000 light-scattering jewels. Colored floodlights at the base of the tree also helped provide color. President Coolidge briefly addressed the crowd, beginning a tradition of a brief presidential speech during the ceremony. NBC broadcast a selection of Christmas carols from speakers placed around the tree from 9 p.m. until midnight. In 1928, the time of the lighting ceremony was again moved to 8 p.m. That year, the Christmas lights were replaced completely by colored floodlights.An inspection of the National Community Christmas Tree in 1929 found that the tree had been severely damaged by the decoration process and the heat and weight of the lights. Amawalk Nursery again donated a living tree, this one a tall Norway spruce. It was planted on May 29 of that year. The year was special in other ways, too. It was the first time that Christmas tree decorations were placed on the tree. To prevent the tree from being damaged during the decoration process, scaffolding was erected around the tree instead of placing ladders into the branches; less heavy strings of lights with lower wattage were used; and a low fence was erected around the tree so that its roots would not be trampled. Although much of the program remained unchanged that year, other than the ceremony reverting to its 6 p.m. timing, the 1929 event was notable for another unique reason as well. That evening, as President Herbert Hoover and Lou Henry Hoover were entertaining children from the local community at the White House, a fire broke out in the West Wing. While Lou Henry Hoover quietly moved the children into the East Wing and safety, the president and other men rushed into the West Wing and retrieved furniture, historic items, files and important papers, Hoover's personal effects, and a puppy that was to be given as a gift to one of the children. The West Wing, including the Oval Office, was gutted and had to be rebuilt.
Two years later in 1931, the National Community Christmas Tree was again found to be so severely damaged that it was replaced a second time. The National Park Service history of the tree concludes that although there is no documentation that the tree was removed, photographic evidence clearly shows the tall Norway spruce had been replaced by a tall blue spruce. The National Park Service believes this tree was obtained from the Office of Public Buildings and Public Parks of the National Capitol, an independent federal agency, in the spring of 1931. During the ceremony that year, the button President Hoover pressed at 5 p.m. was not actually connected to the electricity but set off a buzzer to alert another official to actually light the tree. The button to be pushed by the president would not be reconnected to actual electricity again until 1980.
Other changes occurred in the 1932 tree ceremony. It was the first year that someone other than the president lit the tree. Because President Hoover and his family were vacationing away from Washington, Vice President Charles Curtis lit the tree at 5 p.m. on December 24. It was also the first year of the use of recorded music, with loudspeakers concealed in the branches of the tree and connected to a phonograph in a nearby police booth to play Christmas carols every night from 6 to 10 p.m. until New Year's Day. The "Singing Tree" was a hit with the public, and although music and choirs continued to perform each year thereafter, the tradition of the Singing Tree lasted for several more decades.
In 1933, the National Community Christmas Tree stood alone on Sherman Plaza. All plants but the National Christmas Tree had been removed from the area in the fall and the ground regraded as part of a widening of E Street NW. During early 1934, the tree was cut down and replaced with double row of willow oaks.