Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, a 76-foot Norway spruce, is up in Manhattan

As of 9:39 p.m. ET, Monday, Nov. 9, 2026

This year's Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, a 76-foot Norway spruce from West Edmeston, N.Y., is standing in Rockefeller Plaza after making the trip from upstate New York, ready to be decorated for the Dec. 2 lighting.

The spruce is about 75 years old, measures 50 feet in diameter and weighs about 11 tons, according to Rockefeller Center. Crews cut it down Thursday, Nov. 5, lowered it by crane onto a 100-foot trailer and transported it to Rockefeller Center, NBC New York reported.

The tree came into Midtown on Friday night under a heavy police escort, ABC7 New York reported. The truck turned into the plaza around 7:30 a.m. Saturday as hundreds of people watched, and the tree was raised by crane and secured in its stand, NBC New York reported. The donor family helped the crew drive a spike into the trunk with a sledgehammer, an annual tradition, according to NBC.

How it was found

Rockefeller Center's head gardener, Erik Pauzé, who has picked the tree for more than 30 years, first spotted the spruce six years ago, NBC New York reported. He did not knock on the door of the property owner, Rebecca Decker, until earlier this year.

"Erik actually came and knocked on the door and said, 'That's a really nice tree,'" Decker said on NBC's "TODAY." "And I thought that he was absolutely joking." Before the tree was cut, she said she was "a little sad to see it leave."

"What I look for is a tree you'd want in your living room, but on a grander scale," Pauzé said in Rockefeller Center's account. "It needs to make people smile the second they see it."

Lights, star and lighting date

The tree will be lit with more than 50,000 multicolored LED lights strung along about five miles of wire, according to Rockefeller Center. The tree will be topped with the Swarovski star designed by architect Daniel Libeskind in 2018, which weighs about 900 pounds and has 70 spikes covered in 3 million crystals.

The lighting ceremony is set for Wednesday, Dec. 2, from 7 to 10 p.m., Rockefeller Center said. NBC and Peacock will air "Christmas in Rockefeller Center" that night, NBC New York reported.

The tree will stay on display until Jan. 9, 2027, NBC New York reported. After that, it will be milled into lumber and donated to Habitat for Humanity, and new trees or greenery will be planted on the donor's property, according to Rockefeller Center.

The tradition began in 1931, when construction workers building Rockefeller Center put up a small tree decorated with handmade garlands. The first formal tree-lighting ceremony followed in 1933, Rockefeller Center said.