Photo courtesy of Flickr user cop4cbt

A popular holiday destination for tourists, locals, and couples on dates; the National Christmas Tree has been on display for a couple of weeks since the The First Family threw open the switch earlier this month. After writing about the online lottery for tickets to the tree lighting I decided to enter the lottery and ended up with tickets.

The lighting event itself was great, braving the cold amongst others reminded me of The Inauguration but luckily this Obama attended event was a whole lot shorter. The event was filmed for PBS (and can still be seen on WETA Christmas morning at 8 AM.) where Randy Jackson served as MC, an interesting choice as my friend Carrie and I guessed the over/under dawg references. He dropped the tag line only once.

I was also surprised to see friend, actor, and Maryland native Diego Prieto on the program. He played Santa’s elf sidekick and got to meet Obama and everything. So cool.

The entertainment line-up included names like Sheryl Crow and Jordin Sparks. Common was also on hand- making me wonder if he gets called to work every major DC event.

My pal Diego got to meet President Obama!

Even though the lighting is long over, you can still visit the National Tree at the Ellipse. Besides the tree there are various other holiday displays including 56 smaller trees which represent the 50 states and other territories of the United States.

You can also visit Santa in his workshop through Christmas Eve- check the National Christmas Tree’s website for hours.

Two tips for your visit: wait til evening when everything is lit for the best visuals, and take the Metro- parking is close to impossible near the White House. The closest stops are Farragut West and McPherson Square.