Photo by Brian Allen.

On this, the negative 78th day until Christmas, the National Park Service announced that the National Christmas Tree lighting with take place on December 4 (negative 21 days) while the lottery will open on October 17 (negative 69 days).

The free ticket lottery, which will open at 10 a.m., will close at the same time on October 20 (negative 66 days). There are 3,000 seated and 14,000 standing tickets available. Winners will be notified on November 3 (negative 52 days).

This concludes our way-too-early discussion of Christmas.