Holiday Trees: National Harbor, Reston, and Harbor East

Every November since 2008, upLIGHT has helped open the holiday season with light and music. The work began with the tree at National Harbor when the waterfront first opened, and over nearly two decades it has grown to three developments across the Washington and Baltimore region. Throughout, we have worked alongside Patty Lang of Choice Plantings, who has led the holiday program as prime contractor since that first season.

No two of these developments want the same thing from their holidays, and the presentation looks different at each. Reston Town Center has a traditionally decorated tree by choice, so the show works to highlight the ornaments and branches, not to replace them. Harbor East, the newest addition, is a 32-foot pixel tree with thousands of individually controlled lights among its branches. At both, the trees perform every thirty minutes after sunset in a three-minute show set to classic holiday carols reworked into anthems. At National Harbor and Reston, as the tree show builds to its crescendo, snow makers disguised as lamp poles fill the air with snow. Many families have been coming to the same tree lighting for years, so each season adds something new while the core of the show stays intact.

upLIGHT’s contribution

upLIGHT designed the first National Harbor tree show alongside Brian Gale of NYXdesign and created that tree’s light and music shows for twelve seasons, from 2008 through 2019. Today our work there focuses on the special effect lamp poles that surround the tree and run all the way up American Way. At Reston Town Center and Harbor East we create the complete shows, with soundtracks that come out of a long collaboration with our composer. Percussive accents woven through the music give the light a call to action, so the tree seems to be playing the music, not just keeping time with it. For the Harbor East pixel tree, we create custom media and map it across the tree’s pixels. We make technology choices tailored to each client, and nearly two decades of return seasons reflect the confidence these clients place in the partnership.