Category: Cultural Trends
The National Christmas Tree... Indicator?
A sparkling parallel...
 |
| By Alan Hall |
Published: Thu, 21 Dec 2006 11:45:00 ET |
|
The stock markets closed lower today, December 21, 2006
Like the price of gold, the height of the National Christmas Tree has been “regulated” at times -- by pruning. It is a long and fascinating history, at least at Christmastime. Following are some interesting facts about the Tree. They are dated so you can locate them on the chart of the DJI (courtesy of Yahoo Charts) at the bottom of this article.
-
1923: 48 feet -- The first National Christmas Tree was a cut, 48-foot fir, electrically lit by Calvin Coolidge touching a switch at the base.
-
1924: 35 feet -- The first live tree, a 35-foot spruce. The same living tree was used through 1928.
-
1929: A new, live tree of the same variety replaced the previous one. Smaller bulbs were used to lessen stress on the new tree, and ornaments were used for the first time.
-
1931: 25 feet -- A new live tree replaced the 1929 tree that was damaged by trimming, and decorating.
-
1934: 23 feet, 250 ornaments -- The lights briefly didn’t work when Roosevelt pressed the button, causing a stir in the press.
-
1939: 36 feet -- Mercury vapor lights. "The President decried war, invoked the beatitudes of Christ, and called on 'belligerent nations to read the Sermon on the Mount.'"
-
1941: 30 feet -- "The White House grounds were not open to the public until 4:30 p.m. for security reasons." In order to enter the grounds, the public was required to "check all packages with soldiers outside the Executive Mansion grounds" and pass through an "electric searcher."
-
1945: 30 feet -- Truman re-lights the tree, dark for the past three years for security reasons.
-
1949: 30 feet -- Truman lights the tree by remote control from Independence MO.
-
1954: 67 feet, 2100 lights -- A cut tree was used again, and decorators were hired. From this year through 1972 tree heights were as high as 78 feet and never went below 60 feet.
-
1957: 60 feet -- "500 multi-colored plastic balls, 9,000 9-watt electric bulbs, 200 clusters of glitter ornaments, approximately 350 plastic snowflakes, and a five-foot plastic star at the top."
-
1958: 74 feet, 7000 lights.
-
1959: 70 feet, 3800 lights.
-
1960 through 1970: Tree heights in feet were 75, 75, 72, 71, 72, 70, 65, 70, 74, 75, and 78.
-
1971: Tree heights began crashing with a fall to 63 feet. A rebound in 1972 to 70 feet was followed by an environmentally correct return to live trees, which precipitated a devastating collapse to 42 feet in 1973, 34 feet in 1977, and a final bottom at 30 feet in 1979.
-
1978 to 2004: The same live tree was kept, and height data is unavailable. Instead, we have intermittent data on the numbers of lights. 1994 - 10,000; 1995 - 6000; 1997 - 110,000; 1998 - 100,000; 1999 - 75,000; and 2000, the all time high - 125,000. The downturn began in 2001 with 100,000 lights.
-
In 2002, there is no light data, possibly reflecting a dark mood. In 2003 there was a "return to yesteryear" with 400 ornaments. A weak rebound began in 2004 with 15,000 lights and continued through this year with 25,000 lights.
Interesting isn't it?
I hope you have happy holidays. I think I’m going to ask Santa for charting software so I can be an analyst.
