Where does the famous New York City tree come from every year?
Jingle bells! Jingle Bells!
Jingle all the way to the Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center in New York City!
All photos courtesy of Tishman Speyer
The Rockefeller Center Christmas tree is one of the most famous sights of the holiday season in New York City and has appeared in movies like “Elf” and “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.” Tourists come from all over to see the giant tree decorated with thousands of lights where it towers over the ice skating rink below.
Every year, Erik Pauze, the head gardener for Rockefeller Center, looks for the perfect Christmas tree for the plaza at Rockefeller Center.
The tree might be growing in someone’s backyard or on a farm somewhere in a location near New York City. Imagine getting a knock on your door and having the head gardener from Rockefeller Center say that New York City would like to have your tree for the holiday celebration?
“What I look for is a tree you would want in your living room but on a grander scale,” says Pauze. “It’s got that nice, perfect shape all around. And most of all, it has to look good for those kids who turn the corner at 30 Rock; it needs to instantly put a huge smile on their faces. It needs to give that feeling of happiness.”
Once the perfect tree is found, the team from Rockefeller Center has to get it there!
The tree is carefully cut down and put on a flatbed truck to make the drive to New York City in November. It is always a big moment when the tree arrives for the holiday season.
People wait to see the arrival of the enormous tree and take pictures as it comes to town.
Welcome! The giant tree is taken off the truck with a crane by the team at the new location.
The workers are careful to lift the massive tree and not break any of the long and heavy branches.
The tree makes its way from the street and down the plaza at Rockefeller Center.
The tree is put in place and secured to stand for all the crowds who come to see it and take pictures during the holiday season in New York.
The tree is surrounded by scaffolding so that workers can add the thousands of lights and decorations to get it ready for the holidays. Once it is in place at the plaza, workers have a few weeks to get the tree decorated before the annual tree lighting ceremony.
This year’s Christmas tree is a Norway Spruce from West Stockbridge, Massachusetts. It is 74 feet tall, 43 feet wide, and weighs about 11 tons or 24,250 pounds. That weighs about as much as the school bus that picks you up in the morning!
The record for the tallest tree in Rockefeller Center belongs to one harvested from Killington, Connecticut in 1999 that was exactly 100 feet tall.
There are over five miles of wire with 50,000 multi-colored LED lights on the 2024 Rockefeller Center Christmas tree with a huge sparkly star on top. Since 2018, the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree has been topped with a 900-pound Swarovski Crystal star designed by Daniel Libeskind, The star is 9-feet tall with 3 million crystals and 70 spikes that light up.
The Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center is a magical part of the holiday season and it will continue to bring joy to people when the celebrations are done.
Since 2007, the owner and operator of the holiday tree, Tishman Speyer, has donated the lumber to Habitat for Humanity for future building projects..
Happy Holidays!
