Mayor of New York City Bill de Blasio and actors Alec Baldwin and Kate McKinnon helped flip the switch to illuminate the 94-foot tall, 14-ton Norway spruce with 50,000 multicolored lights, NBC New York reports.
The tree will be lit every day from 5:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. until Jan. 7, except for Christmas Day, when it will stay lit for 24 hours.
3…2…1! Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree is lit! @NBCNewYork pic.twitter.com/dDFVxEHqqB — Natalie Pasquarella (@Natalie4NY) 1 декабря 2016 г.
The holiday tradition started in 1931. This year’s tree came from the backyard of Angie and Graig Eichler in Oneonta in the northern foothills of New York’s Catskill mountain range.
The spruce is between 90 and 95 years old; approximately 50,000 lights on 5 miles of wire adorn the tree, and the Swarovski Star that sits atop the tree features energy-efficient LED bulbs.