The Rockefeller Christmas Tree was selected last week and will arrive in Rockefeller Center this weekend.
Meet the 2023 Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree 🌲
— Rockefeller Center (@rockcenternyc) November 1, 2023
This year’s Tree is from Vestal, New York, weighs in at about 12 tons, and stands 80 feet tall. The Tree will arrive on Center Plaza Saturday, November 11. Follow along for more updates right here. pic.twitter.com/yjP6vCshbO
The festive news was shared by News ABC7 NY as the start of the holiday season gets moving.
The 80-foot tree weighs roughly 12 tons. It is a Norway Spruce grown in Vestal, New York, just outside of upstate Binghampton in southern New York.
This symbol of the season is scheduled to be cut down on Thursday. It will then be taken to midtown, where it will be decorated with 50,000 multicolor lights and topped with a 900-pound Swarovski star on Nov. 11.
Then, after everyone has had their fill of turkey and pie on Thanksgiving, the magic begins at the tree lighting ceremony on Saturday, Nov. 29th, at 8 p.m. (E.T.)
According to People Magazine, the tradition of hosting a giant Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center was started in 1931.
While the center was being built during the Great Depression, construction workers pooled their money together to pick up a 20-foot tall Christmas tree and place it at the center of their work site. They decorated the tree with tin cans, paper garland, and strings of cranberries.
In 1933, the first official Rockefeller Christmas Tree was decorated and displayed in the newly built center, making this the 90th year of the official tradition.
By 1936, two trees graced Rockefeller Center to celebrate the construction of the ice rink. Then, as television entered American homes, the infamous symbol of Christmas was first aired on TV in the 1950s on “The Howdy Doody Show.”
A new era started in 1955 marked a new era when it became such a tall treat that scaffolding was brought in to aid 20 men in decorating the giant pine over a period of nine days.
Throughout the decades, the ornaments changed, too. Instead of paper chains, popcorn and cranberries, the Rockefeller Tree began to don strings of lights and glass balls as well as red garland.
Over the years, the tree selected has become bigger and bigger, a symbol of the city’s growth and the holiday’s influence in American.
