How the nation chooses its best and brightest Christmas trees

West Virginia’s Monongahela National Forest is 921,000 acres of mixed woods and small towns. But only one tree within the borders of the national forest was deemed the “The People’s Tree” and brought to the U.S. Capitol Lawn in Washington, D.C. for the holiday season.

Choosing the Capitol Christmas Tree is a decision that lies with Jim Kaufmann, director of the capitol grounds for the Architect of the Capitol, the federal agency that maintains Capitol Hill. This year, Kaufmann chose a 63-foot-tall Norway spruce.

“It is a monumental task,” says Kaufmann. “We have been talking with [Monongahela foresters] for well over a year.”

The U.S. Capitol is just one site where monumental evergreens are raised and adorned with decorations every fall. Rockefeller Center’s tree has been an icon since 1933, and the tree chosen for Pierre, South Dakota, is one of the nation’s largest indoor displays. To celebrate the holiday season each year, U.S. cities and those across the world carefully select monumental, living trees to decorate with lights. Here’s how trees make the cut.

How trees are chosen—and where this tradition came from 

Massachusetts Senator John McCormack started the ritual of lighting a tree on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol in 1964 by planting a 24-foot-tall Douglas fir on Capitol grounds. It survived three years before it died from wind and root damage.

In 1970, the Monongahela National Forest was the first national forest to supply “The People’s Tree,” a Norway spruce just like this year.

But the Capitol Christmas Tree doesn’t always come from the Monongahela. It’s sourced from U.S. National Forests throughout the country. 

Kaufmann and his team review the forests’ tree populations to note which ones grow the species that make for good Christmas trees and where candidates have come from in the past.

Like the trees that families choose each holiday, height, shape, species, and fullness are all standards architects and gardeners consider for the public display. However, the trees at sites like the U.S. Capitol, Rockefeller Center, and Pierre, South Dakota, must meet specific requirements for their respective displays: They must be accessible to the large trucks that will move them, and its loss must be minimally disruptive to its growing environment.

The U.S. Forest Service staff started their search for this year’s candidates last December. First, they identified areas with known spruce populations. Then, while the team was doing fieldwork in those areas, they used GPS to tag trees that met standards set by the office of the Architect of the Capitol.

Each spruce considered must be between 60 and 80 feet tall and undergo a review to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act. The U.S. Forest Service investigates if the candidate is near any endangered species, grows near water sources, and provides shelter for wildlife.

The U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree team chose eight trees to present to Kaufmann during a visit in July.

This year, the tree came from a developed area where the environmental impact of its removal was minimal and accessible for the heavy machinery needed.

Other renowned trees are donated by private landowners.

Leah Haugan, special projects coordinator for the South Dakota Bureau of Administration, says families call her every year to donate a tree that they have in their yard. She sends out foresters from South Dakota State University to ensure the trees are healthy, between 35 and 40 feet tall, and flexible enough to get through the doors of the state Capitol building.

Erik Pauze, the head gardener for Rockefeller Center, looks for contenders years in advance.

“When I find a good candidate, I frequently visit it for years—sometimes fertilizing it or giving it extra water over the summer,” says Pauze.

Pauze found this year’s Rockefeller Center tree while traveling to see a different candidate. He stopped and knocked on Jackie and Matt McGinley’s front door in Vestal, New York. The 12-ton Norway spruce next to the family’s driveway matched all the criteria for Rockefeller Center. It was at least 75 feet tall, symmetrical, and dense enough that the sky wouldn’t be visible when looking up through the branches. For Pauze, the encounter was serendipitous.

Moving giants across state lines 

On the day the Capitol Christmas Tree was harvested, locals gathered to watch two sawyers cut the trunk with a vintage Forest Service cross-cut saw—an ode to the historic timber industry within the Monongahela. The crew strapped two cranes to the tree, one to hold the top and the other the bottom and carried the spruce horizontally to a 102-foot-long flatbed truck.

“We lay it down slowly, carefully, and inevitably, some branches will break, and they may need to strap some in or brace some extra branches in,” says Amy Albright, the 2023 U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree project manager.

Once packaged, the U.S. Forest Service took the spruce on a tour of West Virginia.

Some crews take extra precautions during the loading process. To prevent breakage, the Rockefeller Center team wraps each branch, and the Pierre squad uses X-shaped brackets.

Law enforcement escorts the trees to their destinations, where crews decorate them within a few weeks. At the end of November, the months of planning come to fruition, and lighting ceremonies begin.

“I’m going to have a lot of pride in that tree when I see it ­­­lit on the lawn,” says Albright. “A lot of pride for the work that, not just myself and our team has put in, but for the whole state.”