Christmas Tidings
Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree Lighting Article
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The Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree
from: Karlie BestlerThe Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree is located in the Plaza Center at 50th Street and 5th Avenue. The Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree may be viewed around the clock, but you will want to see it when it is lit.
The Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony is an event full of pomp and celebrities. More than 30,000 multi colored, 7 1/2-watt bulbs are strung on over 5 miles of electrical wire to decorate the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree. Each branch was individually wrapped to achieve the full effect of lighting. There were no other ornaments on the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree except for the star on top.
The Christmas tree that adorns Rockefeller Center is typically a Norway Spruce. The minimum requirement is that the tree be 65 feet tall and 35 feet wide. However, the manager of Rockefeller Center gardens prefers the tree be between 75 and 90 feet tall and proportionally wide.
This means the tree is typically a Norway Spruce, a native to Northern Europe not America. Norway Spruce that grow in forests don't typically reach these proportions, so the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree tends to be one that was ornamentally planted. Many Norway Spruce have been planted in the United States ornamentally and have grown to large sizes.
An integral part of the success of the event begins with a search for the perfect tree. All year long, people from all around the US send in photos of their trees offering them to the Rockefeller Center. There is no compensation offered in exchange for the tree other than the pride of having donated the tree used in the Rockafeller Center Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony.
Once the tree is cut and moved carefully off its stump, the head gardener for the Rockefeller Center counts the rings to measure its age. The tree travels on a custom-made, telescoping trailer, which can stretch to 100 feet and could accommodate a tree up to 125 feet tall. It takes 15-20 people and a 280-ton, all terrain, hydraulic crane to load the tree.
The tree is transported to New York City, and then in the middle of the night with a police escort on a route designed to disrupt as little traffic as possible to the Rockefeller Center. The route is carefully planned with the assistance of local police and Manhattan police. Then the crane is used to erect the tree to its place of honor at the Rockefeller Center.
The same crane is used to remove the tree after Christmas. The tree is recycled. The 3 tons of mulch are donated to the Boy Scouts. The largest portion of the trunk is donated to the US Equestrian team in New Jersey to use as an obstacle jump.
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