The annual National Christmas Tree lighting ceremony will strike a particularly festive note in 2022 to celebrate the 100th illumination outside the White House.
LL Cool J will return as host, and musical guests will include Gloria Estefan, Shania Twain, Andy Grammer, Joss Stone and more, officials announced Thursday. The United States Marine Band will also perform.
Presented by the National Park Service and the National Park Foundation, the tree ceremony is set for Wednesday, Nov. 30, on the Ellipse in President's Park.
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In addition to the national tree, the walkway surrounding the National Christmas Tree will feature 58 trees representing all U.S. states and territories, plus schools managed by the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Education and the Department of Defense Education Activity. Each tree will be decorated with lights and unique ornaments designed by students from that state or territory.
The tree lighting started in 1923 under President Calvin Coolidge. The original ceremony was a lot smaller back then, involving the president walking from the White House to the tree with a local choir and Marine band.
Coolidge's tree was a 48-foot balsam fir from Vermont. The current living Christmas tree on the Ellipse is a white fir tree, planted on the Ellipse in 2021.
The lottery to get tickets to the tree lighting ceremony has closed; however, anyone else who wants to see the holiday lights will get their chance. The tree, decorated with thousands of lights and ornaments, will be open to public viewing from Dec. 2 through Jan. 1, 2023. Hours are 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday to Thursday, and 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday; the lights will turn on around sunset every day.
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CORRECTION (Nov. 29, 2022): An earlier version of this story said President Joe Biden and first lady Dr. Jill Biden will light a tree from a Pennsylvania farm. However, that tree is the indoor White House tree.
