Rockefeller Center Christmas tree lifted into place in New York City

NEW YORK, NY - NOVEMBER 12: The Rockefeller Center Christmas tree was lifted into place after arriving in the plaza in New York City on Saturday (Nov. 12). About 100 spectators watched the lifting process of the 82-foot tall, 90-year-old Norway Spruce in the morning despite the rain. The giant Christmas tree was donated by the Lebowitz family from Glens Falls, NY earlier this year. The lighting ceremony will take place on Nov. 30. The tree will be decorated with 50,000 lights and topped with a dazzling star made from 3 million Swarovski crystals. The Christmas tree will be on display to the public through mid-January. For more than eight decades, the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree has stood as a holiday beacon for New Yorkers and visitors alike. While the lights, decorations, and stars have changed through the years. The first Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center was set up in 1931, during the Depression-era construction of Rockefeller Center, when workers decorated a smaller 20-foot (6.1 m) balsam fir with "strings of cranberries, garlands of paper, and even a few tin cans” on Christmas Eve. With the lighting of the 50-foot-tall (15 m) first official tree two years later, the tree became what Rockefeller Center dubbed "a holiday beacon for New Yorkers and visitors alike". A skating rink was opened below the tree in the plaza in 1936.(Footage by Lokman Vural Elibol/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)