Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson to host National Christmas Tree Lighting

Tom Hanks will bring the jokes and Rita Wilson, his actress-songwriter wife, will lend her voice to the upcoming 2014 National Christmas Tree Lighting in Washington, D.C.

Travelers lucky enough to have won free tickets given out lottery-style will watch the Hollywood couple host the 92nd holiday ceremony, the National Park Service said this week.

Hanks and a slew of other performers will join President Obama and the first family at the annual Dec. 4 event on the Ellipse near the White House.

During the outdoor Dec. 4 ceremony, Wilson will sing as will Patti LaBelle, pop duo Nico & Vinz, singer and actor Ne-Yo, Steve Miller, and country singer Chely Wright with pop group Fifth Harmony.

The Canadian vocal group the Tenors will be singing holiday songs too.

The president will flip the switch on thousands of LED lights on the existing blue spruce in what’s called the People’s Park.

It is surrounded by the Christmas Pageant of Peace, is a ring of smaller decorated trees that represent each U.S. state, territory and district.

And here’s a cool interactive for techie young girls: They’ll be able to create their own pattern of holiday lights for the Pageant of Peace trees through a computer coding project sponsored by Google.

The “Made With the Code” initiative aims to spark interest in math, science and technology among young girls. The online design project for holiday lights begins Tuesday.

The National Park Service held a lottery in October and informed winners in November for 17,000 free tickets available to watch the ceremony at the President’s Park. You must have a ticket to enter the area.