Extended Dates for the Art and Ornaments: August 31 2011

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Ever since 1964 when Speaker of the House of Representatives John W. McCormack first introduced the ceremony of the Capitol Holiday Tree, the tradition is still upheld and lives on. Each year, the Forest Service selects a tree from national forests that will be presented for display at the US Capitol in Washington DC. The planning for the Capitol Christmas Tree program demands a lot of time, effort, commitment and dedication from people who are assigned to take care of the tree. It all starts each year with the selection of the tree all the wat through to the lighting ceremony. A great many stakeholders are involved in the choosing, making of the ornaments, lights, decoration, and art work exhibition and funding. There
are various reasons as to why the there are extended dates for the arts and ornaments for the capitol Christmas tree.

First the designing and constructing process for the ornaments is time consuming, this tends to be one of the reason why the decoration dates are extended. The arts and hand made ornaments are made individually in different unique styles, each year this makes the tree’s look unique with fresh newly designed ornaments. The individual hand made process of getting the best and appropriate designs for the arts and ornaments also tends to cause the due date to be extended to a later date. Selection of the best art and ornament tends to be really tedious; this is because it involves many individual “artists” and moving their works from one exhibition to another. Therefore, this individuality with mutipule artists and designers can be a cause in the delay of the selection of the right decorations for the Capital Christmas Tree, making the dates for the arts and decorations to be extended. When finding the correct art and ornaments many contests are held to select best art or decoration for the tree. When the right art and hand made ornaments of different types and uniqueness are made, the following may arises is the limited supply of these type of decorations may cause an extension in the dates of art, as well as ornament decoration collection. The Capitol Christmas Tree is quite large and tall and requires many decorations, approximately thousands, resulting in the extension of the deadline dates. When the decorating coadinator realizes that the decorations available are not enough, they tend to request more. Shipment of the decorations also tends to take time extending the final dates.

Extension of dates to submit your art work, as well as of the ornaments is very important. This is because it gives the time needed for the beautiful handmade decorations needed for the Capitol Christmas Tree to be made shipped and received. For any single bit of the decorations for the Capitol Christmas tree to be perfect, time has to be extended, to allow room for the full process and correct placement of the decorations. It’s simply beautiful once the decorations are hung on the tree, everything is now ready for the Christmas season to start!

UPDATED: August 31 – Ornaments due

UPDATED: August 31 – Art Contest Due Date

Click here to download the Juried Art Exhibition Entry Form.

August 31 – Art Contest Winner Announced

September 10 - California Shines! Booth at Tuolumne Me-Wuk 100th Anniversary
Acorn Festival
September 17 - Groveland 49er Festival

November 5-6 – Tree Cutting celebration at the Sonora Fairgrounds
November 8 - California Tour Begins
November 15 - Cross Country Tour Begins – First Stop, Flagstaff, AZ
November 28 - Tree Arrives in Washington, D.C.

At every event and celebration for the 2011 Capitol Christmas Tree we will be collecting non-perishable food to be donated to a local food bank. This is an important part of our program to give back to the communities who participate in this celebration.