 Protesters briefly interrupted the beginning of Agnew's speech, chanting for peace, before Agnew and seven-year-old Gary Morris (a child in the institutional care of the city) lit the tree.On December 15, Women Strike for Peace was granted permission by Judge Joseph Cornelius Waddy of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia to place an anti-war display next to the National Christmas Tree, but they did not have time to erect a display before the lighting ceremony.The tree-topper that year resembled a white snowflake, while the tree itself was decorated with red and white bulbs in clusters amid a wider blanket of gold lights.