The iconic Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree-Lighting ceremony will be held on Wednesday, December 4 @ 8 p.m. Viewers can watch the two-hour “Christmas in Rockefeller Center” special live on NBC and streamed on Peacock.
The 74-foot tall and 43-foot wide Norway Spruce is from West Stockbridge, Massachusetts. The tree will have over 50,000 multi-colored LED lights and a 900-pound, 3 million Swarovski crystal star will be sparkling on top.
For 93 years, Rockefeller Center has been showcasing a Christmas tree. It began in 1931, during the Great Depression, when construction workers who were building Rockefeller Center pooled their money together to buy a Christmas tree. The 20-foot tree was decorated with tin cans, paper garland and cranberries.
Two years later, in 1933, Rockefeller Center decided to make the ceremony an official annual event and have held tree-lighting ceremonies where the trees have gotten taller and the celebration more elaborate ever since.
In 1951, for the first time, the tree-lighting ceremony was televised nationally.
The Christmas tree will be lit daily from 5 a.m. to midnight and for 24 hours on Christmas Eve. It will remain on display through mid-January.
Once taken down, the tree is cut up, milled into two-by-four and two-by-six beams and branded with a Rockefeller Center stamp. The lumber is donated to Habitat for Humanity; the nonprofit organization that helps build/repair homes in America.
By - FZ
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