They decorate the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree with a massive lighting and rigging operation that takes weeks, thousands of LEDs, and a huge crystal star installed from full scaffolding around the tree. Crews use lifts and platforms to wrap the branches in miles of multicolored LED strands and then crown it with a 900‑pound Swarovski crystal star designed by Daniel Libeskind.

Quick Scoop

  • The tree (usually a Norway spruce around 70–100 feet tall) is secured in place with a steel spike at the base and guy wires around the middle so it can safely hold all the decorations.
  • Workers build full scaffolding around the tree for 2–3 weeks so they can reach every branch and hang about 50,000 multicolored LED lights spaced evenly from top to bottom.
  • The lights run along roughly 5 miles of wire in recent years, creating the dense sparkle people recognize from TV and photos.
  • On top, they install a 9‑foot Swarovski star with about 3 million crystals and 70 spikes, weighing around 900 pounds and capable of emitting over 100,000 lumens.
  • After the decorating is finished, the whole setup is tested and then officially lit during the annual televised ceremony at Rockefeller Center.

TL;DR: The Rockefeller tree is decorated like a construction project meets art project: secured with steel and wires, wrapped in tens of thousands of LEDs from scaffolding, and finished with a giant crystal star.