{"id":248662,"date":"2026-07-21T18:25:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T18:25:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/248662\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T18:25:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T18:25:07","slug":"city-of-pittsburgh-begins-search-for-2026-christmas-tree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/248662\/","title":{"rendered":"City of Pittsburgh begins search for 2026 Christmas tree"},"content":{"rendered":"

We may be in the dog days of summer, but the city of Pittsburgh is hard at work preparing for the 2026 holiday season.<\/p>\n

The Department of Public Works’ Forestry Division is launching its annual search for Pittsburgh’s official Christmas tree.<\/p>\n

Each year, the Christmas tree erected at the City-County Building is sourced locally from residents who submit their tree for consideration.<\/p>\n

Members of the public are encouraged to submit suitable evergreens of any variety that are at least 40 feet tall, officials said in a news release. Overgrown or endangered trees are also encouraged for submission, as efforts are made to protect healthy trees.<\/p>\n

Once consent is granted from the property owner, the city will remove, secure, transport, and put the tree up in mid-November. Following the 2026 holiday season, the tree is recycled into mulch that’s used in the city’s parks system.<\/p>\n

The owners of the selected tree will be invited to join Mayor Corey O’Connor for the tree-lighting ceremony, scheduled during the city’s annual Light Up Night celebrations on Nov. 21, 2026.<\/p>\n

The tradition of erecting Pittsburgh’s holiday tree is one of the city’s oldest, dating back to the early 20th century.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A fundraising campaign led by Councilman Robert Garland saw the first Christmas tree go up in 1913. Henry Clay Frick authorized the use of then-empty property at Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue for the festivities.<\/p>\n

The tradition moved to its current space in 1914 when workers put up the second Christmas tree on the construction site of the City-County Building.<\/p>\n

Those interested in donating a tree from their property can contact the Department of Public Works Forestry Division at 412-665-3625.<\/p>\n

\n More from CBS News\n <\/p>\n

In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We may be in the dog days of summer, but the city of Pittsburgh is hard at work…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":248663,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[5527,1897,73,75,74],"class_list":["post-248662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-christmas","tag-holiday-season","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248662\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}