The Rockefeller Center Tree Before the Crowds

The tree is the city's most-photographed holiday object, and at the wrong hour it is a crush. The 2026 tree arrives at the plaza on Saturday, November 7, and is lit at the annual ceremony on Wednesday, December 2, broadcast live on NBC. After that it stands above the skating rink through the holidays, free to see from the plaza, with the trumpeting angels of the Channel Gardens leading up to it from Fifth Avenue.

Skip the lighting night itself. In past years the police closed the surrounding avenues and the first spectators queued from early afternoon; watch it on television instead. Then come back on a weekday morning soon after, before work crowds, when the plaza is nearly empty, the lights are still on and the skaters have not arrived. Rockefeller Center posts the season's viewing hours later in the fall. Pair it with the Fifth Avenue windows, which are also best seen early, and a coffee nearby. After the season, the tree is donated to Habitat for Humanity and milled into lumber.