<P> A formal organization, Pageant of Peace, Inc., was formed in 1955 to take over the event from the loose confederation of business, religious, and civic groups which had organized the 1954 pageant . Spurring the legal incorporation of the group was the projected cost of the 1955 event, which was estimated to be between $35,000 and $50,000 . The group was incorporated on September 30, 1955, with the Board of Trade providing the seed money for the new nonprofit organization . President Eisenhower had suffered a serious heart attack on September 24, 1955, and was recuperating at his farm near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, so the 1955 tree was lit remotely once more . 1955 was also the first year that decorating company Hargrove Inc. of Cheverly, Maryland, began decorating the National Christmas Tree . Ten minutes after the tree was lit, the star and many lights near the top of the tree went out . Earl Hargrove quickly ascended a ladder and discovered why: A string of lights had come unplugged . The problem was immediately rectified . More than 50 embassies took part in the Pathway of Peace . Attendance at the now two - week event soared to 540,000 . A record 51 embassies participated in the 1956 Pageant of Peace, which included a 25 - foot (7.6 m) high Christmas tree jointly donated by 11 Arab nations . In 1957, the Pageant of Peace culminated in a night of folk dancing at Lisner Auditorium on the campus of George Washington University . Foreign embassies were not invited to participate in the 1958 Pathway to Peace, after festival organizers came to believe that they were imposing on the legations . But the embassies were invited to participate again in 1959, and did so . 1959 also saw festival organizers dye the grass green for the first time . When President Eisenhower lit the tree on December 23, a "Singing Christmas Tree" (a choir on an inclined grandstand holding candles, forming the triangular shape of a Christmas tree) formed a backdrop behind him . </P> <P> President John F. Kennedy did not light the tree in December 1961, because his father, Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., had suffered a major stroke, so Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson lit the tree . An electronic console nearby picked up musical sounds from performers on the stage, and altered the color and brightness of the tree's 3,000 multicolored lights . The tree lighting occurred three days earlier than usual because President Kennedy had been scheduled to leave for Bermuda to meet with British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan . The Washington Post reported that embassies did not provide trees or symbols for the Pathway of Peace, instead participating in a music festival at Lisner Auditorium on December 26 . Just 16 U.S. states provide trees for the Pathway of Peace . President Kennedy did light the 1962 tree (on December 17), although the changing lights used in 1961 were not used again . The number of Christmas trees on the Pathway of Peace now numbered 52, including all 50 states, Guam, and Puerto Rico . </P> <P> The 1963 tree lighting ceremony was scheduled for December 18 . But President Kennedy was assassinated on November 22 . President Johnson declared an official 30 - day period of national mourning, which delayed lighting of the National Christmas Tree until December 22 . After a one - hour candle - lighting ceremony at the Lincoln Memorial, President Johnson traveled to the Ellipse and lit the tree . That year, the General Electric company began donating the lights for the tree, changing the lighting set every year . In addition to the life - size nativity scene, Yule log, stage, and live reindeer, the International Paper Company donated 80 cut, small Christmas trees which were decorated with white lights and erected in the shape of a "Cross of Peace" on the Ellipse . Although green dye had been used since 1959 to make the grass look green, no dye was used in 1963 due to the unusual snow which covered the grounds . </P> <P> Small changes in the tree lighting scheme and pageant occurred throughout the 1960s . Instead of multi-colored lights, in 1964 the tree was lit with 5,000 red bulbs . It was decorated with 500 large gold ornaments, and instead of a star was topped with a white cross . But when British Prime Minister Harold MacMillan visited the United States in 1965 and witnessed the tree lighting ceremony, the tree once more featured multi-colored (blue, green, and white) lights . The 53 trees on the Pathway of Peace that year were lit with red and white bulbs . This was also the first year that the American Mining Congress, a coalition of coal industry mining companies, began providing the trees of the Pathway of Peace . In 1966, the 53 Christmas trees of the Pathway of Peace were alternatively lit in all green or all blue lights, and were arranged in an arc around the National Christmas Tree rather than lining the path to it . The following year, the National Christmas Tree was lit with blue lights and encircled with strings of red and white lights, and decorated with gold balls . The tree - topper that year was not a star but a 4 - foot (1.2 m) tall gold spire with a base of golden stars . The trees on the Pathway to Peace, however, returned to multi-colored lights . For the first time in the history of the tree lighting ceremony, a non-American choir (the Festival Singers of Toronto) performed at the opening event . The National Christmas Tree used a blue, white, and yellow lighting scheme in 1968 . When President Johnson lit the National Christmas Tree, this caused another Christmas tree to be lit remotely by radio control in the newly electrified village of Nulato, Alaska (one of 59 rural Eskimo villages to receive electricity for the first time that year). In 1969, the number of trees on the Pathway to Peace expanded to 57, to include all American unincorporated territories and the District of Columbia . The National Christmas Tree that year was decorated in bands of red and white lights, and was at the top of a huge capital letter "V" formed by the Pathway's 12 - foot (3.7 m) tall Red Pine trees from eastern Ohio . The 1969 ceremony was interrupted by about 200 individuals protesting the Vietnam War, who repeatedly heckled the president during his short speech and who temporarily planted an 8 - foot (2.4 m) tall "peace tree" a few yards from the National Christmas Tree . Eight adults and a youth were arrested during the event for disorderly conduct . </P>

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