The Christmas season officially started in New York with the lighting of the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree in New York City Wednesday night.
A video shared by the New York City Police Department shows the countdown to the moment the tree lights up.
This years tree is a Norway spruce from Queensbury, N.Y., that measures 82 feet tall and 50 feet wide, and weighs 14 tons. Its adorned with more than 50,000 multicolored LED lights on about 5 miles of string.
The star atop the tree, designed by architect Daniel Libeskind in 2018, is covered in 3 million Swarovski crystals and weighs about 900 pounds.
The lighting ceremony was hosted by NBC News’ TODAY co-anchors Savannah Guthrie, Hoda Kotb, Craig Melvin and Mario Lopez of “Access Hollywood.”
Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton performed their holiday duet “You Make It Feel Like Christmas,” with additional performances featuring the Muppets of Sesame Street, Andrea Bocelli and more.
