This is the 2005 Capital CHRISTMAS Tree seconds after House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill, lighted it, Thursday, December 8. He made it a point that it WAS NOT a "Holiday" or "Peoples" tree. The crowd went wild.

The music was by the United States Marine Band (The President's Own) and The Congressional Chorus sang the Carols.

It is an 83-foot-tall Engelman spruce plucked from the Santa Fe National Forest in New Mexico. It is decorated with 10,000 lights and 6,000 hand made ornaments from the children of New Mexico.