Singing Christmas Tree upon the location. Since then, the singing Christmas tree concept has spread to Canada, the Philippines, South Korea, Switzerland and Sri Lanka. The most attended tree takes place in Knoxville, Tennessee, with 60,000 attendees in 2007. The first Christmas trees came to the United States in the 1740s from Moravian (now part of the Czech Republic) settlers. In 1851, the first commercial tree lot in the United States was set up in New York City. President of the United States Franklin Pierce set up the first Christmas tree in the White House in 1856. Artificial trees were first developed in
James Pieronnet Pierce of Main and Franklin streets. He served as trustee of Mills Seminary, afterwards Mills College, for many years, devoting a great deal of time to its interests and making it many gifts. Seven children survived Mr. and Mrs. Pierce—all were born in California. (1) The eldest son, James Henry Pierce, was born 25 Apr 1856. He was president of the Pacific Manufacturing Company, and resided at a house he had Julia Morgan design at 1650 the Alameda) in San Jose, California. James married Marion Percy Thurston, and they had two daughters, Edith Pierce, the wife of John Graeff Kennedy Jr.