The National Christmas Tree is a large evergreen tree located in the northeast quadrant of the Ellipse near the White House in Washington, D.C. Each year since 1923, the tree has been decorated as a Christmas tree. Every year, early in December, the tree is traditionally lit by the President and First Lady of the United States. Every president since Franklin D. Roosevelt has also made formal remarks during the tree lighting ceremony.

Since 1954, this event has marked the start of month-long festivities known as the Pageant of Peace. The line of smaller trees representing the U.S. states, the five U.S. territories, and the District of Columbia around the National Christmas Tree is referred to as the Pathway to Peace.

The idea of a decorated, outdoor national Christmas tree originated with Frederick Morris Feiker. Feiker was a highly educated engineer who had been a technical journalist for General Electric from 1906 to 1907 and editor of Electrical World and Electrical Merchandising from 1915 to 1921.

In 1921, Feiker joined the personal staff of United States Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover as a press aide. The Society for Electrical Development, an electrical industry trade group, was looking for a way to encourage people to purchase more electric Christmas lights and thus use electricity, and Feiker suggested that President Calvin Coolidge personally light a tree as a way of giving Christmas lights prominence and social cachet. Vermont Republican Senator Frank L. Greene accompanied Feiker to the White House, where they successfully convinced Coolidge to light the tree.

Feiker arranged for Paul Moody, president of Middlebury College in Vermont, to donate a 48-foot (15 m) tall balsam fir as the first National Christmas Tree. Middlebury College alumni paid to have it shipped via express to Washington. The branches on the lower 10 feet (3.0 m) of the tree were damaged in transit, so cut branches from a local evergreen were tied to the tree to restore its appearance.

Feiker put together a group of local civic organizations to erect the tree in the center of the Ellipse and decorate it, and the U.S. electrical industry donated $5,000 worth of electrical cables (which were buried under the Ellipse and provided the tree with electricity). The site for the tree was personally approved by Grace Coolidge. Arrangements were also made to have 3,000 city school children present to sing Christmas carols and the United States Marine Band to play music. The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) agreed to broadcast the event on radio. The tree was decorated with more than 2,500 electric bulbs in red, white, and green donated by the Electric League of Washington.

At 3 p.m. on December 24, 1923, a 100-voice choir from the First Congregational Church assembled on the South Portico of the White House and began a two-hour concert of Christmas carols. At 5 p.m. (dusk) on Christmas Eve, President Coolidge touched a button at the foot of the tree which lit the lights and electric candles adorning the tree, but he did not speak. A searchlight from the nearby Washington Monument was trained on the tree to help illuminate it as well. The Coolidge family invited citizens of the city to sing Christmas carols on the Ellipse after dark. Between 5,000 and 6,000 people thronged the park, joined by 3,000 more people by 9 p.m. The crowds were joined by the Epiphany Church and First Congregational Church choirs, which sang carols, and the Marine Band, which played Christmas-themed music. The singing ended shortly before midnight. After the white residents of the city had dispersed, African American residents of the city were permitted on the park grounds to see the National Christmas Tree. An outdoor Christian worship service was held, and a mass choir composed of signing groups from area community centers sang more Christmas carols. An illuminated Christian cross was flashed on the Washington Monument, to which men dressed as shepherds walked from the National Christmas Tree.

The 1924 ceremony changed significantly. In April 1924, Coolidge gave a speech to the American Forestry Association in which he criticized cutting down trees for use as Christmas decorations. Feiker believed this was the end of the Christmas tree lighting ceremony, but his wife suggested that a live tree be used instead. Feiker, accompanied by T. H. Ormesby of the Society for Electrical Development and Republican Representative Hamilton Fish II of New York, extended the invitation to light the tree to Coolidge on December 6, which he again accepted.