Traditionally Christmas decorations stay up through New Year's Day, which means today is the official start of the "chucking your dried-up tree onto the sidewalk without regard for your neighbors or trash collection schedule" season. Allow DCist to help point you in the proper direction for Christmas tree disposal. The District Department of Public Works is collecting trees from sidewalks starting today through Jan. 19. However, in order to be certain DPW will pick up......

How about that first snow storm of the season, Washington? CapitalWeather.com says that "yesterday's clipper system actually significantly 'over-performed,'" which is why we ended up with 2-4" of snow for the region instead of the 1" we were originally expecting. The Examiner was concerned about your commute this morning thanks to overnight lows that were forecast to drop into the low 20s, allowing for ice to refreeze on the roads in time for this......

The White House Christmas Tree lighting ceremony is scheduled for tomorrow, Thursday Nov. Dec. 6, at 5 p.m., which means without a doubt, if you can avoid driving your car in the city, you really should. The annual ceremony always screws up downtown traffic in an extreme way. Add the leftover snow and ice on the ground into the mix, and we can promise you a traffic clusterf*** of epic proportions tomorrow evening. If you'd......

>> The Capitol Christmas Tree lighting ceremony is scheduled to take place at 5 p.m. this evening on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol. >> Washington-area writers Michelle Brafman, Merle Collins, T. Greenwood, Joanne Leedom-Ackerman, Faye Moskowitz, Barbara Mujica, Jessica Neely, Amy Stolls, Hananah Zaheer, and Christy J. Zink will be at Politics and Prose to read from their contributions to the latest anthology, Electric Grace: Still More Fiction by Washington Area Women.......

>> Both the White House Christmas Tree and the Capitol Christmas Tree arrived in Washington today. >> D.C. fire officials are warning people not to overload electrical circuits in their homes this holiday season in the wake of a fatal garage fire over the weekend. [WTOP] >> Vice President Dick Cheney experienced an irregular heartbeat Monday and will be heading to George Washington University Hospital to have it checked out -- in case you......

We missed this when it happened a couple of weeks ago, but is it really ever too late to point and laugh at New Yorkers? We didn't think so. So, people are probably aware that Five Guys franchises are proliferating across the Eastern U.S. like nuclear weapons in central Asia. The greasy, peanut-laden fingers of our locally born burger stand have spread as far as Delafield, Wisconsin; Nashville, Tennessee; and Miami, Florida. They've even broken......

So full of Christmas cheer was the air around the White House yesterday that it even caused a massive traffic jam. Oh, wait -- that was actually the road closures around the White House, and most of the drivers stuck in the hours-long commute out of the District were anything but cheery. Yesterday's lighting of the National Christmas Tree on the Ellipse was a festive moment, spare the feel of dread that no doubt struck......

Damn alarms. We're a little late on flipping through our newspaper this morning, so stay tuned as we live-blog the news. 9:29 a.m.: Since Adrian Fenty doesn't already have enough to do, he'll be fielding questions in an online chat over at the Post at 11 a.m. We'd like to know how he can spend the time keeping his head so nicely shorn when we're still trying to balance sleep, work, and shaving once......

Good morning, Washington. We apologize: it's not even December, and here we are running pictures of Christmas trees. But everyone else is doing it! More than one area radio station has already switched to 24x7 holiday music, and trees and tinsel are popping up everywhere. It's hard to resist when Flickrites like lancehayden start putting up appealing shots of the yuletide frenzy. Fairfax Restricts Handouts For The Homeless: It's getting tougher to feed the......

Good morning, Washington. Back in June, the Post rattled Metro's cages with a four-part diagnosis of all the rail system's ills. Today, the paper turns its attention to Metrobus, whose nearly half a million daily riders tend to come from the lower rungs of D.C.'s income ladder. The Post details a familiar list of problems, from aging equipment and mismanagement to poor route planning and chronic bunching. Here's hoping the Post's recommendations for Metrobus are......

A snippet of news from Maryland today is the stuff that dream Morning Roundup's are made up. Funny and off-kilter, but real. It seems that some Maryland residents are a little peeved at what has come to be known as the state's "flush tax," writes WTOP. In order to raise money to upgrade the state's sewage treatment plants to protect the vulnerable Chesapeake Bay from pollutants, Maryland Governor Robert Ehrlich this year endorsed a new......

On Sundays, DCist publishes opinion pieces about life in D.C. The opinions below belong entirely to the author, who, in this case, is reader Timothy Ebner. To add your opinion to the fray, please email me. Leave it to our Capitol City to make politics out of the holiday season. Apparently political correctness now goes as far as Christmas trees or should I say Holiday trees? This year House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) wrote......

You can never have too many Christmas trees. The U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree is being lit today on the West Front Lawn of the Capitol. The U.S. Air Force band will perform and House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), will light the U.S. Capitol Holiday Tree tonight. The White House already has their tree up, but DCist thinks it's a bit garish compared to the tastefulness of the Capitol tree. In fact, we urge any and......

(From DCist contributor Amadie Hart) Christmas tree lots, nurseries, and farms all around the area were buzzing yesterday with shoppers looking for just the right piece of greenery to festoon with lights and ornaments. The holiday season is here, and area residents are rushing out to make sure they aren't left with a Charlie Brown Christmas tree. Whether you cut your own tree, adopt a live tree, or drag it home from the corner......

D.C. is home to a few interesting holiday traditions, but the Eighth Annual Norwegian Christmas is certainly one of the most unique. Occupying the main hall of Union Station during the holiday season, a traditional Norwegian Christmas Tree and an authentic Sámi Lammu (similar to a Native American teepee) serve as the centerpieces of this month-long celebration. Various events throughout December seek to bring a bit of Norway to Chocolate City. This Sunday, you can......

With the holiday season upon us, DCist is bracing for the usual phalanx of seasonal activities. There's a number of events around the mall of interest. Now that we've answered all your questions about the National Christmas Tree, you can head down to the Ellipse tonight to see it lit. To the right is a photo of Lynn Cheney putting the finishing touches on it last week. If the idea of a family-friendly Pagent of......

DCist has to say that your questions were scarce last week. We will blame the short holiday week and vacation brain. As always, if anything is troubling you, anything at all, even if it isn't D.C.-centric, toss it our way at ask [at] dcist [dot] com and we'll attempt to answer, or at least entertain you in the mangled process of answering. If you have queried and have gotten no answer, don't despair. Some queries......

We hope you all had a good Thanksgiving. The weather today should be sunny with temperatures in the low 50s. UDC Gave Free Housing to Athletes: Who knew that that the University of the District of Columbia's official mascot was the Firebirds? We certainly didn't. The W.Times continues to follow the basketball scandal at UDC, which has forced the university to cut its basketball program. The NCAA violations? Housing student athletes for free. From Suitland......