Holiday Season Arrives in Washington

WASHINGTON — The election may just be barely over, the House schedule crammed with hearings and votes, but already across Washington, ready or not, the holiday season is about to begin.

On Friday, the U.S. Capitol Christmas tree will arrive on the west lawn of the Capitol, concluding a 4,000-mile journey from Alaska’s Tongass National Forest, from which it was harvested.

The trek, which began on Oct. 30, included 11 whistle stops that afforded citizens from Pocatell, Idaho to Joint Base Andrews, in Maryland, the chance to see the tree up close, sign the side of the trailer transporting it with markers, and learn about Alaska’s national forests and the U.S. Forest Service’s 54-year tradition of providing what it grandly calls “the Peoples’ Tree.”

“My favorite part of this trip is the show-and-tell time, not the driving time,” driver Fred Austin told Fox News Digital at a recent stop.

Austin, along with John Schank, both Alaskans, are the drivers with the Anchorage-based trucking firm Lynden Transport who had the honor of transporting the tree this year.

Since leaving the tiny borough of Wrangell, a community of less than 2,200 people that abuts the national forest, the 74-foot Christmas tree has been riding on the back of an 80-foot flatbed truck, covered with protective wrapping and a plexiglass window at the rear. 

The tradition of the Capitol Christmas tree began in 1964 when then-House Speaker John McCormack suggested to J. George Stewart, architect of the Capitol, that a Christmas tree be placed on the U.S. Capitol grounds.

A live 24-foot Douglas fir was purchased for $700 from Buddies Nurseries of Birdsboro, Pennsylvania, and was planted on the West Front lawn. 

Each year through 1967 this tree was decorated and a tree-lighting ceremony was held.

However, a combination of factors, including a severe wind storm in the spring of 1967 and root damage, caused the tree to die in 1968; it was removed the same year. 

The 1968 Christmas tree was made from two white pines from Finksburg, Maryland, and was 30 feet tall; the 1969 tree was a 40-foot white pine from Westminster, Maryland. 

The Forest Service, an agency of the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture has provided the trees since 1970.

Of course, the arrival of the Capitol tree is just one of the tent polls of the holiday season in the nation’s Capital.

On Monday, Nov. 25, President Joe Biden will pardon the National Thanksgiving Turkey and its mate, while reflecting upon the time-honored traditions of Thanksgiving and wishing families across the nation a safe and healthy holiday.

This year’s event will no doubt be bittersweet because it will be the final turkey pardon of Biden’s presidency.

Last year, the pardon ceremony held on the South Lawn of the White House, coincided with the president’s birthday (Nov. 20).

“I just want you to know, it’s difficult turning 60,” joked the president, who actually turned 81 last  year.

He subsequently observed that last year’s ceremony was the 76th anniversary of the event. 

“And I want you to know I wasn’t there at the first one. I was too young to make it,” he said, inspiring more laughter from the crowd.

Among those cheering from their seats were Steve Lykken, chairman of the National Turkey Federation and president of the Jennie-O Turkey Stores, the children and families of White House staff and cabinet members, students from the Washington Eliot-Hine Middle School and members of the Future Farmers of America and 4-H.

Roaming the grass around the informal stage as the president spoke were Liberty and Bell, last year’s pardonees. 

The tradition of bestowing a holiday bird to the president dates to 1947 when the National Turkey Federation, which represents turkey farmers and producers, first presented a National Thanksgiving Turkey to President Harry Truman.

Back then, however, the turkey was destined to be the first family’s holiday dinner. 

But by the late 1980s, things had changed drastically — and for the better, as far as the turkeys were concerned. 

The tradition evolved into an often humorous ceremony in which the birds are pardoned, given a second chance at life after they are spared from ending up on a family’s Thanksgiving table.

But for all his levity, Biden concluded on a serious, heartfelt note.

He wanted to talk about “why we have Thanksgiving in the first place.”

“It’s to remind ourselves — and we sometimes forget this — how we have so much to be thankful for as a nation,” Biden said to loud and sustained applause.

But the turkey pardon isn’t the only holiday event on the White House schedule on Monday.

Later in the day, the official White House Christmas tree will be presented to First Lady Dr. Jill Biden.

This year’s tree is coming to the executive mansion from Cartner’s Christmas Tree Farm outside Newland, North Carolina.

The tree is 18.5 feet tall and reportedly has no gaps or holes — requirements for its placement in the Blue Room of the White House, where volunteers will help hang more than 30,000 ornaments on its fragrant but strong branches.

It will also have special meaning this year, being a tribute to the tens of thousands of residents of western North Carolina whose lives were turned upside down by Hurricane Helene in late September.

Dale Haney, the White House grounds superintendent, traveled to Newland, the seat of Avery County, North Carolina, personally to select the tree.

Avery County was one of the hardest hit areas during the storm, experiencing both epic flooding and landslides. Four people died there and many businesses have still not reopened.

This year’s tree, then, is seen as a particular point of pride in the community, a sign of renewal and hope.

This year’s tree is the 16th North Carolina tree that has stood in the White House since the tradition started.

As it happens, North Carolina is the nation’s second-largest producer of fresh Christmas trees (after Oregon), and the 14 counties that comprise the western part of the state are particularly well known for the production of quality Fraser firs.

According to the North Carolina Christmas Tree Association, the state produced over 20% of the real Christmas trees in the United States.

North Carolina has approximately 1,300 growers producing Fraser fir Christmas trees on an estimated 40,000 acres, and the Fraser fir represents over 99.4% of all species grown in North Carolina, the association said.

Finally, the official lighting of the National Christmas Trees, co-presented by the National Park Service and the National Park Foundation, will be held on Saturday, Nov. 30.

The National Christmas Tree is a living, 40-foot Norway spruce from West Virginia’s Monongahela National Forest, which replaced an older tree last year that had been affected by a fungal disease. 

It can be seen year-round in President’s Park. During the holiday season 56 smaller trees surrounding it are decorated for Christmas with one-of-a-kind ornaments representing every U.S. state and territory plus the District of Columbia. The lighting ceremony was first celebrated in 1923.

What to know more about Christmas trees? A great resource is the National Christmas Tree Association.