Did you know that “The People’s Tree”, the Capitol Christmas Tree, that arrives in late November each year in Washington comes from a different National Forest every year? This year, the tree traveled over 4,400 miles from the Chugach National Forest in Alaska.
2015 U.S. Capitol Christmas tree was felled on Oct. 27 in Seward, Alaska
It all began in 1964, when the then Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, John McCormack, placed a live Christmas tree on the lawn of the Capitol. That brave, original live tree survived for three years before succumbing to wind and root damage. Representative McCormack’s gesture 51 years ago began the now yearly tradition of the display of the beautiful cut tree as the Capitol Christmas Tree.
Photo from The Joy Trip Project
After being cut near Seward, Alaska, the 74 foot Lutz Spruce traveled by land and water this year to reach its destination. On December 2nd, it was in place ready for the annual grandeur of the tree lighting. It is decorated with thousands of ornaments created by the children of Alaska. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan invited fifth-grader, Anna DeVold, from Alaska to the podium to help flip the switch to officially light the tree. Anna’s essay was chosen as the winner of the 2015 Capitol Christmas Tree Lighting Contest.
This week’s color, U.S. Forest, was created by Kim Cushing, one of our Western Distributors. I recently visited Kim and Karen Berg, along with some of the California CeCe Caldwell’s Paints Retailers for a training session. Kim had created a interesting challenge for all of us: six mixed colors that we had to guess how they were created. U.S. Forest is a mid tone green that was made by mixing equal parts of Blue Montana Sky and Spring Hill Green and is very similar to the color of the U.S. Forest Service work vehicles.
Have you ever had the opportunity to see the Capitol Christmas Tree? Maybe one was harvested from a National Forest near you?
U.S. Forest: 1 part Blue Montana Sky : 1 part Spring Hill Green
Peace,
CeCe