Christmas Trees

For 100 years, the National Christmas Tree has stood on the “Ellipse”, which is south of the White House in Washington DC. Another tree is positioned outside the US Capitol Buildings.

The US Forest Service has been called upon many times to supply the festive trees. The trees this year are two Norway spruces (Picea abies) from the Monongahela National Forest in West Virginia.

A National Christmas Tree lighting ceremony began on Christmas Eve in 1923 when President Calvin Coolidge lit a 48-foot Balsam Fir from Vermont decorated with 2,500 red, white, and green electric bulbs. This year, the tree was lit in a special ceremony on 30 November.

The 2023 White House Christmas tree is an 18-foot Fraser fir (Abies fraseri) from a nursery in North Carolina. This tree is traditionally decorated at the discretion of the First Lady of the United States.

While not on the same scale, there was a time when the Forests Commission also delivered Christmas trees to State Government Offices.

This is a truck load of pine trees being delivered to Treasury Place in Melbourne.

In 1963-64, the Commission produced nearly 20,000 Christmas trees from state plantations.

A tradition maybe worth resurrecting.