Fun Facts About the Famous Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree

How tall is the Rockefeller Christmas tree, and when do they light it? This year's answer: a 76-foot Norway spruce from West Edmeston, New York, to be lit on Wednesday, December 2. Every November, a single spruce becomes the most photographed tree in the world. It arrives from a family's yard somewhere in the Northeast, gets wrapped in more than 50,000 lights, topped with a nine-foot Swarovski star, and lit in front of millions watching live on NBC. Then, a few weeks into January, it comes down. And if history holds, it doesn't just get hauled away. It gets rebuilt into someone's home.

The height changes every year, since each tree comes from a different family's yard. The 2026 tree, a Norway spruce from West Edmeston, New York, stands 76 feet tall and 50 feet wide, weighs about 11 tons, and is roughly 75 years old. Recent trees have measured anywhere from about 75 to over 90 feet tall. Rockefeller Center's head gardener, Erik Pauze, has picked the tree for more than 30 years, and he spends most of each year scouting candidates before making the final call.

The 2026 lighting ceremony is Wednesday, December 2, during the live NBC broadcast of Christmas in Rockefeller Center. The ceremony happens once a year, typically the Wednesday after Thanksgiving or the first week of December. Once lit, the tree stays on daily from 5am to midnight, glows for a full 24 hours on Christmas Day, and switches off around 9pm on New Year's Eve.

More than 50,000. That's how many multicolored, energy-efficient LED lights it takes to cover the Rockefeller tree, strung across about five miles of wire. The finishing touch is the Swarovski star on top, a nine-foot, four-inch design by architect Daniel Libeskind, covered in more than 3 million crystals across 70 spikes and weighing around 900 pounds.

Somewhere out there every year is a family with a Norway spruce in their yard that's about to get famous. Rockefeller Center's scouts look across the Northeast, especially New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, year-round, and most candidates have been growing in the same spot for 70 to 100 years. Families donate their trees for the honor of it, and usually get a new one planted in its place. The 2026 tree was donated by Rebecca Decker of West Edmeston, a small hamlet in central New York about 200 miles from Manhattan.

This year's tree is scheduled to be cut down on November 5 and to arrive in Manhattan on November 7, the same day as Rockefeller Center's “Meet the Tree” event with family activities, giveaways, and photo opportunities. It stays on display through January 9, 2027, giving it about two months in the spotlight. Because it's outside in the cold, it doesn't need water. The freezing temperatures keep it from drying out the way a tree in a heated living room would.

Once the lights come down, the tree gets a second act. Since 2007, Rockefeller Center has donated its Christmas tree to Habitat for Humanity, which mills the wood into lumber for homes built for families in need. The tradition started after Hurricane Katrina, when volunteers used salvaged wood to help frame houses for displaced families, and it's continued nearly every year since, with lumber going toward homes across New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and beyond. The 2026 tree is headed the same way.

Of course, the Rockefeller tree isn't the only one that can be donated. Whether you have a real or artificial tree, most communities have somewhere for it to go after the holidays: the Salvation Army often takes artificial trees, and local habitat or mulching programs can put a real one to good use.

You don't need a trip to Midtown to bring a little of that magic to your own tree. Our New York City Ornament and NYC Taxi Ornament capture the same skyline the Rockefeller tree lights up every winter, just at a much friendlier size. Decorating for someone with a favorite pastime? Our Sport ornaments cover just about every game, and our Cat and Dog ornaments are made for the four-legged family members who insist on supervising the whole trimming process. Keeping it traditional? Our Angel ornaments have a permanent spot near the top.

Millions travel to see one tree lit for a season. But the truest part of the tradition happens after, when a single spruce becomes someone's front door. That's a kind of magic no light show can beat.