National Christmas Tree

We went to see the National Christmas Tree in DC, because we thought it would be interesting. In actual fact, we found it a touch underwhelming, because it was smaller than we thought, and the hugely sophisticated lighting system completely covers the foliage, such that you only saw an upside down cone shape of lights.
There was a walkway around the outside of the tree, and minature train sets were set up inside the barrier, with various scenes and trains. People amused themselves by throwing coins into the cars of the trains that were running. We didn't know about this, and had travelled without change!
On the other side of the walkway were trees from each state - a group from each state had been invited to create baubles for their states tree. These were sort of interesting, but a bit worn by December 26th.
While I fed the baby in a nearby hotel lobby, the boys had hot chocolate and used the bathrooms, and then we went home. A very low key outing, but the first one into Washington with the newest member of our family (and all the extra packing that involves).

The Whitehouse was all lit up too

There were trains running around most of the train tracks. They had open box cars that people tried to throw coins into. I presume there was an army of small children who picked the coins up each day, to donate somewhere.