White House to Totally Ruin Christmas?

Tickets to Christmas Tree Lighting to be distributed via online lottery

Hope you're feeling lucky. Admission to Dec. 3's National Christmas Tree Lighting will be granted via lottery for the first time this year -- but if the Easter brouhaha is anything to judge by, it ain't gonna be a Silent Night.

Tickets to the White House Easter Egg Roll were also available online -- but the site had seized up by 9 a.m. on day one. Many people either couldn't get onto the site at all, while others were thwarted when the site bumped them out partway through the ticket-ordering process.

We're hoping that the National Park Service doesn't have similar problems with its ticket giveaway. The new online lottery (located at www.thenationaltree.org) opens at 12:01 a.m. next Wednesday, Nov. 4 and closes at 11:59 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 6.

The (free, but limited) goods: 2,800 ticketed seats and 7,000 standing-room tickets. The SRO tickets are new this year, according to the NPS.  Those without computer access (obviously, not you) can call 877-444-6777.

Get your clicking finger ready. Come Nov. 4, fill up the coffee pot and chain yourself to your laptop.

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