Rockefeller Center has announced its selection to grace the plaza this Christmas season -- an 82-foot-tall Norway Spruce from Queensbury, New York. The 14-ton tree is set to arrive in the city later this month ahead of the lighting.
So when is that, you ask? And when does the 50-foot-wide specimen arrive in New York City?
Here's everything we've learned in Tuesday's announcement and more fun facts about the annual extravaganza.
What Are the Key Dates?
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The 2022 Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree will be cut down from its Queensbury home on Thursday, Nov. 10 and travel roughly 200 miles south to Manhattan. It will arrive in the plaza on Saturday, Nov. 12 and be hoisted into place.
The tree lighting is set to kick off at 7 p.m. ET on Wednesday, Nov. 30. You'll be able to watch the spectacular show in a live broadcast on NBC.
Where Is the Tree From and How Big Is It?
The Norway Spruce is 82 feet tall, 50 feet wide and about 14 tons. It is approximately 85 to 90 years old and was donated by the Leibowitz family of Glens Falls, New York. The tree itself comes from Queensbury.
How About the Glitz?
More than 50,000 multi-colored LEDs will be strung over about 5 miles of wire to adorn the 2022 tree.
The three-dimensional Swarovski star, designed by architect Daniel Libeskind in 2018, weighs about 900 pounds and features 70 spikes covered in 3 million crystals. The star's diameter is 9 feet, 4 inches.
More Holidays
What Happens After the Holidays?
The tree will be milled into lumber for Habitat for Humanity.
How Long Have We Been Doing This, Again?
Here are some historical milestones.
- 1931 – Construction workers building Rockefeller Center put up a Christmas tree, the first-ever Rockefeller Center 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 (21.3 m) 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 one 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 lit for the first time on national television on 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 - For the 50th tree lighting, a 70-foot-tall (21.3 m) 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 tall, came from Killingworth, Connecticut.
- 2004 – The Swarovski-designed star became the largest star to ever grace the tree.
- 2007 – For the first time, the tree was lit with energy-efficient LEDs. They draw a fraction of the power that had been traditionally required by the tree, reducing energy consumption from 3,510 kwH to 1,297 kwH per day, saving as much energy as a family would use in a month in a 2,000-square-foot home. Hundreds of solar panels atop one of the Rockefeller Center buildings help power the new LEDs.
- 2021 – For the first time, the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree comes from Maryland.
