News

Next year's U.S. Capitol Building Christmas tree (AKA "The People's Tree) will hail from California 2nd Congressional District's very own Six Rivers National Forest according to a "humbug" tweet from North Coast Rep. Jared Huffman.

"I don't mean to 'humbug' the nice tree from Colorado, but next year, the Capitol Christmas tree is coming from California's 2nd congressional district where we have the biggest and most beautiful trees of all. Six Rivers National Forest!" reads Huffman's tweet.

I don't mean to "humbug" the nice tree from Colorado, but next year, the Capitol Christmas tree is coming from California's 2nd congressional district where we have the biggest and most beautiful trees of all. Six Rivers National Forest! https://t.co/MZCcAb3sqW

— Rep. Jared Huffman (@JaredHuffman) December 5, 2020

Rep. Huffman is the only humanist — someone who believes "that human experience and rational thinking provide the only source of both knowledge and a moral code to live by" and "reject the idea of knowledge 'revealed' to human beings by gods, or in special books"— serving openly in Congress.

Every year a different national forest is chosen to provide a Christmas tree for the capital's west lawn. The tradition began in 1964 when Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives John W. McCormack (D-MA) placed a live Christmas tree on the Capitol lawn where it lived three years before it was taken out because of wind damage and root rot. In 1970, the U.S. National Forest Service was put in charge of choosing the People's tree.

This year's Christmas tree came from the Grand Mesa Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forest in Colorado.

Next year will be the first year Six Rivers National Forest provides a tree for the U.S. Capitol.