how much do they pay for the rockefeller tree

The Rockefeller Center Christmas tree itself is not usually something “they pay for” in the sense of buying it from the owner; the tree is almost always donated by a private homeowner and no purchase price is paid to the family.

Quick Scoop

• The homeowners who provide the tree typically do not get paid ; they donate it for the prestige and tradition of being the Rockefeller tree.

• If Rockefeller Center had to buy a similar 70–100 foot Norway spruce on the open market, estimates put the raw tree cost at around $20,000.

• The real money goes into everything around it, not the tree itself:
  • Transporting the huge tree to Manhattan can run tens of thousands of dollars , with some estimates up to about $70,000 depending on distance and logistics.

* Decorating and installing it (cranes, crews, lights, security, etc.) pushes the overall production value into the **tens of thousands of dollars** more, not counting the multi-million-dollar Swarovski star topper that is reused each year.

So in everyday terms:

• How much do they pay the family for the Rockefeller tree? → Usually $0, because it’s a donation.

• How much do they “pay” to put on the whole Rockefeller tree show each year? → Well into the tens of thousands of dollars, largely for transport, setup, and decorations.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.