[Released December 25, 1931. Dated December 3, 1931]
To the Nation's Christmas Tree Association:
Your annual Christmas service held at the foot of a living tree antedating the birth of Christ, is a dramatic and inspiring event of national interest. It symbolizes and vivifies our greatest Christian festival with its eternal message of unselfishness, joy and peace.
HERBERT HOOVER
Note: The message was read at the annual ceremony around the General Grant tree in Grant National Park, Calif. The tree, believed to be the world's oldest living thing, had been designated in 1925 as the Nation's Christmas tree.
Herbert Hoover, Message to the Nation's Christmas Tree Association. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/207145