The tradition that began in 1923 when President Calvin Coolidge walked from the White House to the Ellipse to light the 48 foot Balsam fir tree decorated with 2,500 red, white and blue electrical light bulbs will celebrate its 91st tree lighting ceremony at the Nation's capital on December 6th, 5PM (EST) 2013.
This year's tree, an 88' Engelman spruce from the Colville National Forest located in Northeast Washington state began its journey as the nations official tree at the November 1st ceremony. A small crowd of officials and bystanders braved the crisp morning air among a background of golden parch trees with bond fires, hot chocolate and cookies to keep them warm. They watched, as Francis Culloyah, a Kalispell Tribal elder began the blessing of the tree accompanied by the sharp cries and rhythms of their Native American drum circle.
The tree is so large, that it took over three days for a crew of forest service personnel and volunteer workers to wrap and make the tree, its companion trees and more than 5,000 hand made ornaments, travel ready.
The tree and its ante-rouge will travel more than 5,000 miles and will stop at more than 25 cities, before reaching its final destination.
Sedonans have everything to be proud about! The tree will make its way from St. George, UT, along Highway 89 to Sedona for an official visit to our City on November 14th, from 4 to 6PM at Possee Grounds, then proceed North to Flagstaff for an 8:30PM viewing at Little America promptly continuing on its course east to Albuquerque, NM.
This year's tree lighting ceremony will be officiated by House Speaker John Boehner and children who participated in creating the Christmas ornaments that will decorate the tree.
Unlike its early history when Mr. Earl Hargrove and his good friend Bill Law would, with no such thing as strings of light, would manually install sockets every foot on several hundred feet of wire, and then dress as Santa and climb a ladder when the bulbs became finicky, this year's tree will be lit by LED lights which are 50% more energy efficient.
You can track the tree's progress at TracktheTree.com and find out more about the national tree at thenationaltree.org. The National Christmas Tree is the official charity of the National Parks of America and UL.
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