Photo by afagen

Many of you were unhappy with the outcome of this year’s new lottery system to get tickets to the traditional White House Easter Egg Roll. Just read through the comments of this post for an idea of how annoyed local folks were that the ticketing system was opened up to the entire country, via the Internet. Then get ready to do the same thing all over again for the lighting of the White House Christmas tree.

This year’s lighting of the National Christmas Tree on the Ellipse will take place on Dec. 3, but to get tickets, you’ll need to apply for the lottery starting this Wednesday, Nov. 4 through Friday, Nov. 6.

To apply for the online lottery, you need to log in to www.thenationaltree.org at some point between 12:01 am (EST) on Wednesday through 11:59 p.m. on Friday. In an improvement over the Easter Egg Roll ticketing process, anyone is able to apply during this entire period, no matter what time they log on. It’s just that only 9,800 tickets will be distributed after random winners are selected from the entire pool of those who apply — so the odds are going to be pretty slim.

Winners will receive their tickets by November 15.