DC -- U.S. Capitol Grounds -- Christmas Tree (2005):
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- Description of Pictures: 2005 -- Engelmann Spruce -- 65 feet (20 m) -- Santa Fe National Forest -- New Mexico -- The tree was lit by Dennis Hastert, assisted by eight-year-old Steven Castillo from Santa Fe, at 5 pm on December 8 in a ceremony including music performed by the United States Marine Band. Felled in early November, the tree arrived by trailer at the West Front Lawn of the Capitol on November 28. Decorated with some 3,000 ornaments crafted and donated by the people of New Mexico, the tree was lit with 10,000 lights (including strands of LEDs for the first time), and remained lit from dusk until 11 pm each night through January 1, 2006.[11] First tree since 1998 with the "Christmas Tree" title.[2]
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- Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks including AI scrapers can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.
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[1] CAPX_051221_002.JPG
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[2] CAPX_051221_022.JPG
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[4] CAPX_051221_034.JPG
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[7] CAPX_051221_068.JPG
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[9] CAPX_051221_104.JPG
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[11] CAPX_051221_121.JPG
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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_051221_030.JPG: Capital Christmas Tree
- CAPX_051221_098.JPG: Capital Christmas Tree
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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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