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President and Mrs. Reagan traditionally throw the switch and light the tree — an annual event since 1923.
While the tradition of a national Christmas tree dates back 64 years, the White House has marked the occasion for far longer. The first recorded tree in the home of the first family was set up by Franklin Pierce in 1856.
It cannot be determined if presidents after Pierce kept up the tradition, until Benjamin Harrison began the now-unbroken string of White House Christmas trees in 1889, announcing that “we should make merry for children at Christmas time.”
This year’s White House tree was grown on a 160-acre farm owned by Eric and Gloria Sundback, near Harpers: Ferry, W.Va. Mrs. Sundback said this tree will be the third they have grown that has been set up in the Blue Room.
To win the right to have a tree in the White House, they had to take honors in West Virginia and be chosen by the National Christmas Tree Association.
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