President Bush reminded the nation to give thanks to the men and women in the armed services before leading a countdown of the lighting of the national Christmas tree Thursday night.

With a push of a button, Bush lit the 42-foot Colorado blue spruce decorated with 25,000 colored lights, illuminating the Ellipse and drawing cheers from the crowd of thousands.

It was the sixth lighting for the president and the 83rd for the White House.

The tree-lighting ceremony is the beginning of the three-week Pageant of Peace in which the Ellipse is visited by hundreds of thousands of visitors.

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Before the lighting Thursday, as sun descended behind the Potomac River and the temperatures dropped below 40 degrees, national acts entertained the audience with holiday music. Performing were theater and musical legend Eartha Kitt, Olympic gymnast and Broadway’s “Peter Pan” Cathy Rigby, recording star B.J. Thomas, and Tony-nominated actor Brad Oscar who appeared as Santa Claus. They were backed up by the United States Army Band and the Singing Angels Choir, a youth group from Cleveland.

Coinciding with the ceremony was the other holiday tradition: the annual national Christmas tree-lighting traffic jam. Downtown D.C.’s homebound commuters were detoured around the White House and Ellipse.

smccabe@dcexaminer.com