The 2022 Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree has arrived in NYC
All photos courtesy of Diane Bondareff/AP Images for Tishman Speyer
The Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree has arrived in Midtown, marking the start of the holiday season in New York City. Donated by a family in Glens Falls, New York, the 82-foot-tall Norway Spruce tree is 50 feet wide and weighs around 14 tons. After its arrival at Rockefeller Center this weekend, the hefty tree was hoisted into position by a crane and set in place, where it will stand throughout the holiday season. The annual tree lighting ceremony will take place on Wednesday, November 30.
The wrapped 2022 Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, an 82-foot tall, 14-ton Norway Spruce from Queensbury, NY, pulls into Rockefeller Plaza on a flatbed truck
Donated by the Lebowitz family, the tree is roughly 85 to 90 years old and comes from Queensbury, an upstate town located close to Lake George.
The tree was scouted and selected by Rockefeller Center’s head gardener Erik Pauze, who has helped locate and transport every tree for the past three decades.
The 2022 Rockefeller Center Christmas is lowered into place by crane in front of 30 Rockefeller Plaza, Saturday, Nov. 12, 2022, in New York.
Tree donor Neil Lebowitz drives a spike into the trunk of the tree.
The Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree will be decorated with more than 50,000 multi-colored LED lights strung across five miles of wire, and its peak will be adorned with a 900-pound crystal star from Swarovski designed by architect Daniel Libeskind in 2018.
The three-dimensional sparkling star measures nine feet, four inches in diameter, and has 70 spikes covered in Swarovski crystals.
A rigger prepares the wrapped 2022 Rockefeller Center.
Solar panels positioned on top of one of Rockefeller Center’s buildings will help power the tree’s array of lights for the duration of the holiday season.
After the lighting ceremony, the tree will be lit daily from 6 a.m. to 12 a.m. The tree stays lit for 24 hours on Christmas Day and from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. on New Year’s Eve.
New Yorkers caught the first glimpse of this year’s tree earlier this month and were eagerly awaiting its arrival in Rockefeller Center.
Rockefeller Center’s Christmas Tree lighting has been a city tradition since 1933, with the ceremony being broadcasted on television every year since 1951.
RELATED:
- Get a first look at this year’s Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree
- The history of the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree, a NYC holiday tradition
All photos courtesy of Tishman Speyer
