Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree lighting 2018
The holiday season has officially arrived in New York, and no single event is a bigger holiday hoopla than the lighting of the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree.
This year’s tree is, as in many other years, an enormous Norway spruce—the 72-foot-tall conifer weighs about 12 tons, and was trucked down to NYC from Wallkill, New York, earlier this month.
On Wednesday, November 28, it’ll be illuminated for the first time around 9 p.m., and millions of spectators are expected to take it all in, whether from their homes.
And those streets will indeed be packed—the Department of Transportation has already designated Wednesday as a gridlock alert day, meaning that “travel through Midtown will take twice as long as a typical day of week,” according to the agency.
Additionally, some streets will be closed in Midtown to facilitate the tree-lighting event, which is open to the public on a first-come, first-served basis. Here’s the full list from the NYPD; streets will be closed at the police department’s discretion, but according to “Gridlock” Sam Schwartz, the closures will begin around 3:30 p.m.:
46th Street between Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue
47th Street between Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue
48th Street between Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue
49th Street between Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue
50th Street between Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue
51st Street between Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue
52nd Street between Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue
Rockefeller Plaza between 48th Street and 51st Street
Sixth Avenue between 46th Street and 52nd Street
Fifth Avenue between 46th Street and 52nd Street
And if you want to steer clear of “pedlock” at subway stations, best to either avoid the ones surrounding Rockefeller Center—so 47-50th Streets, and Fifth Avenue-53rd Street—or leave before the event begins or ends.
According to the NYPD, some of the streets near the tree will be closed regularly between now and January 7 (when the whole thing comes down); those are:
49th Street between Fifth and Sixth avenues
50th Street between Fifth and Sixth avenues
Those streets will be closed from 5 p.m. to midnight on weekdays, and from 1 p.m. to midnight on weekends.
