Our dry stretch is about to end. How much rain can the NYC area expect Thursday-Friday?

Halloween is over and we have a tree. You know what that means? It’s time for the Rockefeller Christmas Tree’s arrival! (Cue the festive pomp and circumstance!)

The Norway spruce from upstate New York selected to be the 2026 Rockefeller Center Christmas tree is scheduled to make its 200 miles trek to its new home in New York City after it gets cut down Thursday.

This year’s tree hails from a property in West Edmeston, Ostego County. Crews are expected to cut down the tree on Nov. 5 and then drive the bare Norway spruce to its new home two days later on Nov. 7.

The tree will be placed upright at Rockefeller Plaza, where it’ll spend weeks getting adorned with tens of thousands of lights and the iconic Swarovski star.

Eager fans anticipating the annual tree lighting need only wait until Dec. 2, when the official “Christmas in Rockefeller Center” live show helps ring in the holiday season.

This year’s tree will be on display until Jan. 9.

When is the Rockefeller Christmas tree arriving?

The 2026 Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree will be cut down from West Edmeston on Nov. 5 before it travels roughly 200 miles to Manhattan.

Here’s a brief history of the tree-lighting

• 1931 – Construction workers building Rockefeller Center put up a Christmas tree, the first-ever Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree.
• 1933 – First formal Rockefeller Center Tree Lighting Ceremony. The tree was decked with 700 lights in front of the eight-month-old RCA Building.
• 1936 – Two trees, each 70 feet (21.3 m) tall, were erected. For the first time the Lighting Ceremony included a skating pageant on the newly opened Rockefeller Plaza Outdoor Ice Skating Pond.
• 1942 – Three trees were placed on Rockefeller Plaza, one decorated in red, one in white and one in blue to show support for our troops serving during World War II.
• 1949 – The tree was painted silver, to look like snow.
• 1951 – The Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree was lit for the first time on national television on the Kate Smith Show.
• 1966 – The first tree from outside the United States was erected. It was given by Canada, in honor of the Centennial of its Confederation. This is the farthest distance a tree has traveled to Rockefeller Center.
• 1980 – For the 50th tree lighting, a 70-foot-tall (21.3 m) Norway Spruce came from the grounds of the Immaculate Conception Seminary of Mahwah, N.J. Bob Hope participated in the lighting.
• 1999 – The largest tree in Rockefeller Center history, 100 feet tall, came from Killingworth, Connecticut.
• 2004 – The Swarovski-designed star became the largest star to ever grace the tree.
• 2007 – For the first time, the tree was lit with energy-efficient LEDs. They draw a fraction of the power that had been traditionally required by the tree, reducing energy consumption from 3,510 kwH to 1,297 kwH per day, saving as much energy as a family would use in a month in a 2,000-square-foot home. Hundreds of solar panels atop one of the Rockefeller Center buildings help power the new LEDs.
• 2021 – For the first time, the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree comes from Maryland.

What happens to the Rockefeller Center tree after the Holidays?

The tree will be milled into lumber for Habitat for Humanity.

Disclosure: NBCUniversal is a long-term tenant of 30 Rockefeller Center.