The Capitol Christmas Tree. Click on picture for larger image

A Capitol Christmas Tree, complete with lighting ceremony, has been the tradition on the west lawn of the Capitol since 1964.

This year's 65-foot tree is a 77 year old Colorado blue spruce from the Pike National Forest near Colorado Springs, Colorado. The tree was driven from Colorado through Kansas and Missouri, along the historic Santa Fe Trail, reaching Washington, D.C. on December 4th. One of the truck drivers was U.S. Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell [R-CO], who took special lessons to qualify for a commercial license to drive in the convoy. Sixty four smaller trees -- one from each county in Colorado -- were part of the convoy to be distributed among House and Senate office buildings and other governmental offices as a gift from the people of Colorado.

To see this year's tree and its more than 10,000 lights and 4,000 ornaments handmade by Colorado schoolchildren, visit the TreeCam website. Senator Tom Daschle's [D-SD] staff went all out to welcome their homestate's 1997 tree, from the Black Hills National Forest in South Dakota. They installed a camera in their Capitol office to feed a live minute-by-minute picture of the Capitol Christmas Tree onto the Internet, and have continued to maintain this service ever since.

The Capitol Christmas Tree website features pictures of holiday decorations, snowmen on the Capitol lawn, sledding on the grounds, and a picture album of past trees. For more information about the harvesting and 10-day trip from Colorado to Washington D.C. of this year's tree, visit the Colorado Millennium Tree website.

The idea for a tree on the Capitol grounds originated with Speaker John McCormack (D-MA). A live tree was purchased from a Pennsylvania nursery and planted on the grounds in 1964. It was decorated and lit annually for 4 years, but died in 1968. For the next two years, 30-40 foot tall white pines were purchased from a Maryland nursery. Since 1970, the Department of Agriculture, U.S. Forest Service, has selected all the Capitol trees. All have come from national forests and have averaged between 55-60 feet in height.