DC -- U.S. Capitol Grounds -- Christmas Tree (2002):
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- Description of Pictures: 2002 -- Douglas Fir -- 70 feet (21 m) -- Umpqua National Forest -- Oregon -- The tree was lit by Dennis Hastert on December 12 in a ceremony including performances by the United States Navy Band, the Umpqua Singers from Umpqua Community College, and the Congressional Chorus. Decorated with 6,000 ornaments crafted and donated by the people of Oregon, the three was lit with 10,000 lights. Delivery of the tree from Umpqua National Forest took 22 days, with the tree arriving at the Capitol on December 2. During the ceremony, Hastert was presented with a tree ornament, in the likeness of the Capitol Dome and made from marble from the original east front steps of the House wing, by Ronald A. Sarasin, president of the U.S. Capitol Historical Society.[14]
Tree: Douglas Fir from Umpqua National Forest, Oregon
During Christmas, both the White House and the Capitol display Christmas trees prominently in their back yards. The White House one tends to be a pre-fab piece that doesn't change much each year--the variety is, instead, created by 50+ state and province trees which have hand-made decorations. For the Capitol, though, a tree is cut down from a national forest and trekked over here and filled with thousands of hand-made ornaments from the state that provided the tree. This year, the tree was taken from a national forest in Oregon. The sign points out that the forest has 50 percent old growth timber, something which I'm sure makes some industry groups and administrations salivate over.
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- Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
- CAPX_021221_013.JPG: Christmas tree @ the Capital
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- Wikipedia Description: Capitol Christmas Tree
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Capitol Christmas Tree (formerly the Capitol Holiday Tree) is the decorated tree that is erected annually on the West Front Lawn of the United States Capitol, in Washington, D.C., to celebrate the Christmas holiday season. The selection, installation, and decoration of the tree are all overseen by the Superintendent of the Capitol Grounds of the Architect of the Capitol (AOC).
Records of the AOC indicate that a Christmas Tree was purchased in 1919; however, it was not until 1964, one year after the suggestion of John W. McCormack, the 53rd Speaker of the House, that a procedure was established for the installation of a yearly tree.
The 1963 tree was a live Douglas-fir, purchased from a Pennsylvania nursery. It was re-decorated each year through 1967 when it was severely damaged in a wind storm and subsequently died as a result of root damage. After the 1963 tree died, white pines from Maryland were cut down and put on display for the 1968 and 1969 seasons. Beginning in 1970, trees have been provided by the U.S. Forest Service from various National Forests.
The Capitol Christmas Tree is traditionally lit during a ceremony at the beginning of December, and remains lit each night though New Year's Day.
Name controversy
In the late 1990s, the Capitol Christmas Tree was renamed to the Capitol Holiday Tree. There was never a clear explanation as to why the name change occurred, but the name change raised controversy. On November 29, 2005, the day after the 2005 tree arrived from New Mexico, the tree was renamed the Capitol Christmas Tree at the request of Dennis Hastert, the 59th Speaker of the House.
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