Rockefeller Center Tree Lighting Ceremony

The famous Rockefeller Center Christmas tree will be lit for the first time this holiday season on Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009. The lighting of the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree has become a star-studded holiday tradition .

The Christmas tree that adorns Rockefeller Center is typically a Norway Spruce with a minimum requirement that the tree be 65 feet tall and 35 feet wide. The manager of Rockefeller Center gardens prefers the tree be between 75 and 90 feet tall and proportionally wide. Norway Spruce don’t typically reach these proportions in nature , so the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree tends to be one that was ornamentally planted in someones front or back yard and is donated . There is no compensation offered in exchange for the tree, other than the pride of having donated the tree that appears in Rockefeller Center.

History of the Rockefeller Center Tree:
1931 – Workmen on a muddy construction site put up a Christmas tree.
1933 – First formal Rockefeller Center Tree Lighting Ceremony. The tree was decked with 700 lights in front of the eight-month-old RCA Building.
1936 – Two trees, each 70 feet tall, were erected. For the first time the Lighting Ceremony included a skating pageant on the newly opened Rockefeller Plaza Outdoor Ice Skating Pond.
1942 – Three trees were placed on Rockefeller Plaza, one decorated in red, one in white and the other in blue to show support for our troops serving during World War II.
1949 – The tree was painted silver, to look like snow.
1951 ­ – The Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree was lighted for the first time on national television of the Kate Smith Show.
1966 – The first tree from outside the United States was erected. It was given by Canada, in honor of the Centennial of its Confederation. This is the farthest distance a tree has traveled to Rockefeller Center.
1980 – A 70 foot-tall Norway Spruce came from the grounds of the Immaculate Conception Seminary of Mahwah, N.J. Bob Hope participated in the Lighting.
1999 -­ The largest tree in Rockefeller Center history, 100 feet high, was chosen from Killingworth, CT.
2004 ­ – The Swarovski-designed star is created. It is the largest star to ever grace the tree, measures 9 1/2 feet in diameter and 1 1/2 feet deep, and is adorned with 25,000 crystals and one million facets.

With over five miles of lights are used to decorate the tree every year. The nationally televised tree lighting draws huge crowds and has become a yearly pilgrimage for New Yorkers and Tourists alike .Only the lights and the star decorate the tree. The live telecast of the Rockefeller Center Tree Lighting Ceremony features an impressive line-up of celebrity performances like Beyonce or Tony Bennett .

Later the tree is recycled and the 3 tons of mulch are donated to the Boy Scouts. The largest portion of the trunk is donated to the U.S. Equestrian team in New Jersey to use as an obstacle jump.

If you don’t want to brave the crowds for the tree lighting ceremony, you can also see the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree from 5:30AM to 11:30PM daily from December 2nd, 2009 through January 7th, 2010 (and all day long on Christmas Day).

2009 Tree Lighting Ceremony At Rockefeller Center Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009 from 7PM-9PM (tree is lit at 8:55PM)
Rockefeller Center, Rockefeller Plaza, From West 48th Street to West 51st Street between 5th and 6th Avenues.

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