Going to the Rockefeller Christmas Tree Lighting was single-handedly one of the dumbest train rides I have ever taken.
Wednesday, Dec. 4th, New York City celebrated the annual Rockefeller Christmas Tree Lighting and this year I was determined to go. I was excited to see Jennifer Hudson, the BackStreet Boys and Kelly Clarkson perform under the tree at 8:00 PM.
My boyfriend, Evan Moore, and I took a train into Grand Central around 4:00 PM. When we got off, we raced up Fifth, only to find the entire street blocked off. We could only walk East and West. Crossing the street was unheard of with the New York Police Department blocking every crosswalk. We walked all the way up to 52nd street and made a turn for Rockefeller Plaza, only to be greeted by a cluster of people. I have never held onto his hand tighter.
Now, yes, I was expecting the crowds; however, I was not expecting every entrance to Rockefeller to be gated off. There was absolutely nothing on the Internet mentioning having to wait in random lines and hoping to see the tree.
After walking up and down the Avenue of Americas, I eventually decided to ask for help. The sweetest NYPD officer told me I had to either wait in the Radio City Music Hall line, going inside and wrapping back outside the building, or run to 47th or 52nd street to wait in those lines. She had little hope I would see the tree as people started to line up at 2:00 PM for the event, and at this point it was 4:15 PM.
Moore and I took off toward 47th street, only two blocks away from where we were, but found no line. So, we ran backwards to 52nd. On 51st street, we found a short line standing in the direction of Rockefeller Plaza, so we took our chances standing there. I tried to ask the family in front of us what the line was for and they just laughed at me – I don’t think they spoke English if I’m being honest.
After two minutes of just laughing at the chaos, three guys jumped in line behind us and I mentioned not wanting to trust us in this endeavor. Of course, one of the guys told me this was one of the last big New York events he had to go to before he completed his holiday bucket list – recently having gone to the NYC Ball Drop and hoping to go to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade next year. This is when I started to really hope we were in a line heading toward the tree.
At 4:20, a good number of people began to leave the line, which made me question our decision to stand somewhere random.
To my surprise, at 4:30, the gate opened to event security. Moore and I had to have been within the first 100 people in the Plaza. Our view of the tree was breathtaking. The Swarovski star shined brightly, clear in my view path. At this point, we had three and a half hours of standing around, but I just wanted to stare at the tree.
We decided to start Elf to kill some time but I couldn’t focus on a movie with the woman behind me breathing on my neck. I thought going into the event that I would be able to handle the crowd, but people become crazy during the holidays. We watched three fights just to get into the Plaza.
After a little while, the NYPD moved us closer to the tree, but further from the rink (where all the performers would be). When we moved, we reconnected with the nice gentlemen we had met in the previous line. It was comforting to see a new friendly face among the crowd.
To distract ourselves from how cold our hands and feet were, Moore and I recited our days to each other, but that honestly didn’t take long. With no entertainment, the tree lighting became increasingly boring and more of a waiting game.
And that’s when I heard the most disappointing information of the night: all of the performers pre-recorded their shows. Meaning we had to stand outside in the 30℉ weather for another four hours just to see lights turn on.
At that point, I decided it was time to leave. Moore and I took a few photos to post then headed out. We took a 6:34 PM train back to Mineola.
Although I was not pleased with the outcome, I was able to cross off a bucket list item. And I still watched the tree lighting – just from the comfort of my bed with a hot chocolate.