House Speaker Paul Ryan Presides Over Capitol Christmas Tree Lighting

The Capitol Christmas tree was lit on a rainy evening on Dec. 2 during a ceremony on the Capitol West Lawn. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin), in his first lighting ceremony since taking over for John Boehner (R-Ohio) called for a moment of silence during Wednesday night’s Capitol Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony, following a mass shooting earlier that day in San Bernardino, California, in which at least 14 persons were killed and 17 others were wounded. “Please keep the victims and their families in your prayers right now,” said Ryan before the tree lighting ceremony began. Ryan was assisted in lighting the tree by 10-year old Anna DeVolld from Soldotna, Alaska. The fifth grader wrote the winning essay for the 2015 Capitol Christmas Tree Lighting Contest. The tree, a 74-foot spruce, traveled 4,000 miles from Alaska’s Chugach National Forest and arrived in Washington on Nov. 20. It is decorated with thousands of ornaments created by children from the state and will be illuminated nightly between dusk and 11 p.m. through New Year’s Day.

View our photos from the 2015 U.S. Capitol Tree Lighting Ceremony by clicking on the photo icons below. (All photos by Jeff Malet)