November is here and it’s time to start thinking of Christmas (already? Yes). The 2023 Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree is in Vestal, New York and it will be cut down on November 9, Rockefeller Center announced on X.
The tree will travel about 200 miles to reach Manhattan on November 11, a Saturday, ready to be hoisted up in the Center South plaza. The 80-year-old Norwegian Spruce will be the centerpiece of the annual tradition: more than 50,000 multicolored LEDs will be strung over its 43 feet wide branch spread and a 9-foot, 900-pound Swarovski star, covered in 3 million crystals, will top its trunk.
Revellers will no doubt flock under the tree on opening hours – 10 am to 1 pm every day on the South Plaza, with the Rock and Roll Playhouse performing kid-friendly holiday classics and storytimes with independent bookstore McNally Jackson.
“Meet the 2023 Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree,” wrote the Rockefeller Center on X. “This year’s Tree is from Vestal, New York, weighs in at about 12 tons, and stands 80 feet tall”.
The tree – always a Norwegian Spruce – is chosen every year by the same person, according to Rockefeller Center Magazine: the head gardener, Erik Pauze. In a recent interview with the house magazine, Pauze said that he spotted this year’s tree in a Vestal yard while scouting in Broome County.
