Silent Cal sings Silent Night (and lights the tree too)
The first president to have a national Christmas tree on White House grounds was Calvin Coolidge. On December 23, 1923 a ceremony was held on the Ellipse. Lucre Walker Hardy, acting director of the D.C. Community Center Department, wrote to Basic Slemp, Secretary to President Coolidge on November 30, 1923 and asked for an endorsement of her plan to have a Christmas tree on the White House grounds. She wrote, "It seems that the use of the White House grounds for this Christmas tree will give the sentiment and the exercises a national character." Hardy continued to lobby for the tree on that location, and once that plan was approved, she worked with the Office of Public Buildings and Grounds to see that the plans come to fruition.
That tree was a gift from Paul D. Moody, president of Middlebury College in Vermont, Coolidge's home state. Senator Frank L. Greene of Vermont got on board to help get Coolidge to participate in the ceremony. Thomas Ormsbee of the Society for Electrical Development in New York City was interested in the President's lighting a national Christmas tree.
At 5:00 p.m. on Christmas Eve, President Coolidge walked from the oval office and lit the first "National Christmas Tree." Standing at the foot of the tree, the President touched a button that lit the tree electrically, according to a story in the Christmas 1923 edition of the Washington Post. The tree was a 48-foot balsam fir. 2,500 electric bulbs in red, white and green, were donated by the Electric League of Washington, illuminating the tree. That evening members of the public returned to the tree at 7 p.m. for a choral concert and performance by the "President's Own" Marine Band quartet. At 9 p.m. citizens headed to the North Lawn where Mrs. Grace Coolidge's led a carol singing. At midnight the group returned to the Ellipse where a reenactment of the Wise men's journey was being acted out at the nearby Washington Monument.
That tree was a gift from Paul D. Moody, president of Middlebury College in Vermont, Coolidge's home state. Senator Frank L. Greene of Vermont got on board to help get Coolidge to participate in the ceremony. Thomas Ormsbee of the Society for Electrical Development in New York City was interested in the President's lighting a national Christmas tree.
At 5:00 p.m. on Christmas Eve, President Coolidge walked from the oval office and lit the first "National Christmas Tree." Standing at the foot of the tree, the President touched a button that lit the tree electrically, according to a story in the Christmas 1923 edition of the Washington Post. The tree was a 48-foot balsam fir. 2,500 electric bulbs in red, white and green, were donated by the Electric League of Washington, illuminating the tree. That evening members of the public returned to the tree at 7 p.m. for a choral concert and performance by the "President's Own" Marine Band quartet. At 9 p.m. citizens headed to the North Lawn where Mrs. Grace Coolidge's led a carol singing. At midnight the group returned to the Ellipse where a reenactment of the Wise men's journey was being acted out at the nearby Washington Monument.