People will start their celebration for the Christmas in the late November or in early December as a commencement of their holidays with the unique Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony.

After Thanksgiving on Wednesday, The Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree is lighted up which specifies, the holiday season is started and Christmas cheer will be spread in the air. For this year 2009, the ceremony of lighting up the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree will be on the Wednesday, December 2, 2009. 

The Rockefeller center, lights up the tree from the day next to thanksgiving till New Year’s Eve, is situated, in the middle of composite buildings between the streets of 47^th and 50^th, in the 5^th and 7^th Avenues. The Christmas tree in the Rockefeller Center will be lighted up from 5:30 a.m. till 11:30 p.m. daily after the Thanksgiving. But the timing is changed on the Christmas and on New Year’s Eve. On Christmas, the tree will be lighted up the whole day that is, 24 hours. On New Year’s Eve, the tree will be illuminated till 9:00 p.m.

A Norway spruce is the Christmas tree that is decorated to light up in the Rockefeller Center. In order to place it in the center the Christmas tree should have a minimum of 65 feet tall and 35 feet wide. But the tree is preferred to be between 75 and 90 feet tall and its corresponding width by the manager of the Center. The trees that grow in the forest won’t come up to this height and so this is planted in somebody’s yard in order to reach that height. This tree which is grown on someone’s yard is given to the Center without any payment as it is a pride for them as the tree grown in their yard is lighted up in the Rockefeller Center for Christmas.

Chicago

In Chicago, the Christmas tree lighting ceremony will be held at Daley Plaza at Washington and Dearborn. The event of lighting up the Christmas trees is an eagerly awaited event. As a tradition followed every year the City of Chicago Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony usually is lighted up the day after Thanksgiving. But now it will be lighted up on the following week day for budget reasons which cause dismay to the travelers who will be the ones in the town that weekend.

Washington DC

The tradition of lighting up of National Christmas tree in Washington DC is followed since 1923. A live tree Colorado blue spruce of 40 foot high is brought from York, Pennsylvania to the Ellipse, the grassy area south of the White House in 1978. In order to mark peace, “Pathway of Peace”, in 1954, around 56 smaller trees are decorated around the National Christmas tree which represents the 50 states, 5 territories and the District of Columbia.