It’s officially the most wonderful time of the year as the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree takes center stage at its annual star-studded lighting ceremony Wednesday.
Kelly Clarkson, whose talk show tapes at the midtown landmark, will host the lighting ceremony starting at 8 p.m. ET.
The more than 50,000 LED lights decking out the 74-foot-tall Norway spruce, topped off by a Swarovski star, probably won’t turn on until closer to 10 p.m.
The event will be broadcast on NBC via a two-hour live “Christmas in Rockefeller” special, which will also be available to stream on Peacock.
It’s a return to festive form for the Grammy winner, 42, who first performed at the ceremony in the early aughts and hosted the 2023 lighting telecast, months after she relocated to the East Coast.
Performances will include a blast from the past with The Backstreet Boys, as well as Broadway veteran Megan Hilty, Jennifer Hudson, Dan + Shay, Thalia, Little Big Town and the Radio City Rockettes.
This year’s 43-foot-wide, roughly 11-ton tree is Rockefeller Center’s first to come from Massachusetts since 1959 and was planted in 1967 by a pair of then-newlyweds, Earl and Leslie Albert.
The tree arrived at Center Plaza on Nov. 9 from West Stockbridge, Mass., about 130 miles west of Boston.
Once the tree is taken down in mid-January, it will be donated to Habitat for Humanity, per NBC.
The forecast in Manhattan predicts a cloudy evening in the low 40s, though with windchill it’ll feel more like the low to mid-30s, with rain possible around 11 p.m.
Traffic in the evening is predicted to be congested. The New York City Department of Transportation has designated Wednesday as one of the last remaining Gridlock Alert Days for the year and advised against driving in Manhattan if possible.
Due to the tree lighting, road closures will take effect at 11 a.m. on E 49th St and E 50th St., and E 48th and E 51st starting at 1 p.m.
