Rocky Beginnings

Today, the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree gets its own television show when it is lit up and is a much-loved landmark of New York’s Christmas celebrations. When the first tree was raised in 1931, however, it was a rather less ceremonious affair. In the midst of the Great Depression, down-and-out workers were paid a small fee to put the six-metre tree in place in the dusty, unfinished Rockefeller Plaza and decorate it with “strings of cranberries, garlands of paper, and even a few tin cans”.

Did you know… the 2013 Norway spruce in Rockefeller Plaza was 23 metres tall and was lit up by 45,000 bulbs.