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Rockefeller Center Christmas tree goes green
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The Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree. (c) Rockefellercenter.com
It’s not officially the holiday season until the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree is lit, and this year the tree is greener than ever – both in color and in practice. The 72 ft. tall Norway Spruce from Connecticut was cut down with a two-person hand saw. Over 30,000 LED Christmas lights decorate the tree at a fraction of the energy cost of typical lights, and photovoltaic panels have been installed on the Rockefeller Plaza roof as a type of solar generation station. After the holiday season is over, the tree will be recycled for Habitat for Humanity.
This Spruce is the 75th famous tree in a long line, which routinely gets more media coverage than every Arbor Day combined. The tree even has its own website, outlining its personal roll in New York City history.
The tradition unofficially started with a 20-foot Balsam Fir in 1931, predating Rockefeller Center, which was still under construction. Officially, the history of the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree, created by the Center’s publicist, starts in 1933 with a 50-feet tall pine of unknown origin. Two trees took center stage in both 1936 and 1937 and three trees in 1942. During wartime, the Rockefeller trees were alive and decorations were minimal, since all materials had to be conserved
Some other notable highlights:
1936 Rockefeller Center ice rink opens
1976 The lighting ceremony was televised for the first time, on NBC
1980 A man is arrested for attempting to climb the 65 ft. tall Norway Spruce
1999 The tallest tree in Rockefeller history – a Norway Spruce topping in at 100 feet
2004 The first crystal star (designed by Swarovski) is made up of 25,000 crystals and 1,000,000 facets. At 9.5 feet tall and just under two feet deep, it is also the largest star to ever top a Rockefeller tree.
The tree is lit from 5.30am to 11.30pm daily, with the exception of Christmas Eve when it stays lit all night.
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