NEW YORK, N.Y. (NEWS10) — New Yorkers and visitors gathered together on Wednesday, to kick off the holiday season as the world-famous Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree was lit at 9:57 p.m. More than 50,000 multi-colored, energy-efficient LED lights, strung on five miles of wire, adorn the 14-ton, 82-foot tall, 50-foot-wide Norway Spruce, which hailed from Queensbury.
Savannah Guthrie, Hoda Kotb, Craig Melvin and ‘ACCESS Hollywood’ Host Mario Lopez hosted the annual Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony with featured appearances from Jimmie Allen, Andrea Bocelli along with Matteo Bocelli and Virginia Bocelli, David Foster and Katharine McPhee, Brett Eldredge, Mickey Guyton, Alicia Keys, The Muppets of Sesame Street, Dan + Shay, Blake Shelton, The Shindellas, Gwen Stefani, Louis York and more. The evening also included a performance by the Radio City Rockettes and a special appearance by Amy Poehler and Maya Rudolph. Plus, Shelton and Stefani delivered a duet of their holiday single, “You Make It Feel Like Christmas.”
This year’s tree came from the Lebowitz family, who live in Glens Falls. The tree was harvested on November 10 and arrived in New York City on November 12, where it was raised into place in front of a crowd of spectators. The Lebowitz family attended the tree lighting ceremony on Wednesday.
This year marks the 19th year that a Swarovski star tops the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree. The star, which debuted in 2018, is made up of 70 spikes covered in three million crystals, is nearly nine-and-a-half feet in diameter and weighs 900 pounds.
Spectators can view the lit tree each day from 6 a.m. to midnight; all day on Christmas; and from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. on New Year’s Eve.
Rockefeller Center began its iconic Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony in 1933, when a Christmas tree was placed in front of the then-RCA Building and decorated with 700 lights. Now a quintessential New York tradition, the Christmas trees in Rockefeller Center have ranged from 50-foot Pines to 100-foot Norway Spruces and are enjoyed by millions of New Yorkers and visitors from near and far throughout the holiday season.
