1961
December 20
Kennedy
President and Participants: Vice President Johnson stood in for President Kennedy when the President was called away to be with his ailing father in Palm Beach, Florida. Mrs. Johnson attended the ceremony with her husband. The Vice President lit the tree at roughly 5:00 p.m. [D.C. Public Library, Washingtoniana Division, D.C. Community Archives, Collection 37, National Christmas Tree, unidentified, December 21, 1961.] The Vice President spoke of the nation's dedication to Christ's quest for peace. "In the last analysis," the Vice President said, "our strength does not reside in material things. Our wealth and our arms, our great cities and out mighty buildings, will avail us not if we lack spiritual strength to subdue mere objects to the higher purposes of humanity." [D.C. Public Library, Washingtoniana Division, D.C. Community Archives, Collection 37, National Christmas Tree, unidentified newspaper article, December 21, 1961.]
Edward Carr, president of the Christmas Pageant of Peace, held the switch box for the Vice President to light the tree.
Walter N. Tobringer, president of the D.C. Board of Commissioners, spoke at the ceremony. [NARA, RG-351, Entry 21, Box 72, File 1-073, "Relative Miscellanea -- 'Pageants of Peace,'" letter, December 15, 1961.]
The Tree: Cut, 75-foot Douglas fir from Washington state. The tree was donated by Weyerhaeuser Company's Clemons Tree Farm in Washington. The farm was dedicated in 1941 as the first tree farm in America to manage forestlands to provide wood, water, wildlife and recreation. [NPS -WPP, "Christmas Pageant of Peace Binders," "Fact Sheet, 1961 National Community Christmas Tree".]
The tree was lit from an electronic console that transformed musical notes into impulses that changed the color and degree of brightness of the lights. Thus, when the air filled with song the lights began to flicker. [Washington Post, December 21, 1961.] It was decorated with 3,000 lights. [Washington Post, December 21, 1961.]
A church in Massachusetts crafted part of the 1961 tree into an altar. [NPS-WESF, RG-79, Box 16, File 1115-27, "Christmas Pageant of Peace, 1/2/62-12/22/62," letter, February 21, 1962.]
Noteworthy Ceremony Elements: The 1961 turning of the switch lit another tree in Skokie, Illinois. The Skokie-Washington tie-in was the first of its kind, and used the same remote control technique that President Eisenhower used previously to light the Washington tree from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The tie-in was arranged when Illinois Congresswoman Marguerite Stitt Church referred her constituents to the Washington Board of Trade. Technical provisions were made by the American Telephone & Telegraph Company. [Washington Post, December 21, 1961.]
