Rockefeller Center Christmas tree: history and traditions that few people know about

The festively decorated fir tree in Rockefeller Center has long been an unspoken symbol of the Christmas holidays in New York. The publication told about how the tradition of installing a tree appeared here and what happens to it after the winter holidays. Events.

Salvation from Depression

The history of the main New York tree, which today sparkles with thousands of lights and is decorated with a star from Swarovski, is very modest. It began during the Great Depression. Then the economy was in decline, not having time to recover from the collapse of the stock market. Many companies went bankrupt, and people lived in poverty.

Barely making ends meet, most Americans at that time could not afford to buy a New Year tree. And on Christmas Eve 24 December 1931 New York Times reported a huge number of unsold Christmas trees. “Yesterday there were too many Christmas trees on the market. More than 120 carriages of trees remain unsold, ”the publication wrote.

At the same time, another note came out. It said that about 40 of thousands of people were officially employed for the construction of the Rockefeller Center. Builders, happy with this news, combined their modest finances and bought a Christmas tree, which they installed in front of the construction site.

It was about 6 meter spruce. She was decorated with very modest "toys" - tin cans, paper crafts and garlands, which the workers themselves made. The New Year tree was not illuminated by lights. But there was something more important for people at that time - a table under the Christmas tree, set for the foreman, where he handed out wages to workers. For this money, people could buy gifts for their loved ones on the eve of the holidays.

Thus, the Christmas tree near the Rockefeller Center has become for New Yorkers a symbol of hope and optimism in difficult times.

New York Main Christmas Tree

A few years after the story of the workers who decorated the Christmas tree on their own, the Rockefeller Center publicist came up with the idea to light festive lights on it. This idea was welcomed, and from 1951 of the year, NBC every year broadcasts live the official lighting ceremony on the now main New York tree.

This usually happens a week after Thanksgiving. This is an open event for the public, where both local residents and visitors can come.

How to choose the main tree of New York

Typically, a Christmas tree is chosen in several states: Connecticut, Vermont, New York and New Jersey. Rockefeller Center Senior Gardener Eric Pause, who picks the tree for a year, is responsible for the process. To do this, he monitors potential “candidates”: he watches how the trees grow, how they look at different times of the year; some of them feed and water.

On the subject: Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center: when the lights are lit on it

In September, Pause makes the final decision. At the same time, the winning Christmas tree is not bought - as a rule, the owners donate it to New York. Usually it is a tree up to 30 meters high.

How to decorate coniferous beauty

The main Christmas tree of New York is decorated with 8 kilometers of LED lights and more than 50 thousand lights. Since 2004, on top of a tree, they started lighting a star with 25 with thousands of Swarovski crystals. However, the source notes, in 2018 they replaced it with a more modern, 400-kilogram star. To create it, 12 engineers and craftsmen worked for two whole years. The star was adorned with three million crystals, which is 120 times more than its predecessor.

By the way, lighting for the Christmas tree is energy-efficient: it receives an additional resource from solar panels installed on the roof of the Rockefeller Center. This is very useful, because on Christmas days, lights illuminate the fir tree around the clock.

The main holiday tree even has attendants - florists monitor its good condition. This is facilitated by the fact that the spruce is on the street, which allows it to remain fresh and beautiful for a long time.

The main Christmas tree in New York is very popular: about 125 millions of visitors and residents come to see it every year.

The fate of the green beauty after the holidays

After the spruce will delight millions of people, it will continue its good mission in another place. To do this, the guest of the forest is sawn into boards that are passed to the Habitat for Humanity charity. Then these unusual boards are used to restore important cultural objects or for construction purposes.