1931 displayed the first Christmas Tree in Rockefeller Center, set up by grateful construction workers building 30 Rock.
You can see St. Patrick’s in the background.
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That first tree was only 20 feet tall and decorated with paper garlands, strings of cranberries and tin cans. It was the Great Depression.
For the workmen times were tough, but at least they had a paying job.
There was no tree in 1932.
The first ever “official” tree was erected in 1933, twice the height of the first one and decorated with 700 electric lights.
During the war years of 1942-45 trees were erected but decorated in “nonessential materials”, because every scrap of steel and glass went to the war effort.
In 1973 the gas and oil shortage reduced the number of lights and the hours that they burned.
1999 saw the tallest tree on record, a 100’ Norway Spruce from Connecticut.
Today the tree averages about 80 feet high and 13 tons.
It sports a 9 foot crystal star and features over 45,000 LED string lights powered by solar panels on nearby buildings.
The theoretical limit, by the way, is 110 feet because 90〫turns in the streets leading to Rockefeller Center can’t accommodate anything taller than that.
This year, the tree is from Pennsylvania.
The Lighting Ceremony is scheduled to take place on the 3rd of December. C'mon down.
2010
Tree’s company!
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