NYC will Ring in the New Year with the Times Square Debut of the New “Constellation Ball”
As we begin to celebrate the winter holidays and the crossing of the threshold into 2026 draws near, it offers an ideal opportunity to look back at the history of two highly anticipated and iconic holiday traditions in New York City that both residents and visitors alike enjoy each year. The Rockefeller Center Christmas tree that was lit last Wednesday, December 3 marked the 93rd tree lighting ceremony, however, the title for the installation of the first public Christmas Tree in New York City goes to Madison Square Park in 1912 to bring “the joy of the holiday tree to those without the means to have one in their home.” It wasn’t until 1931 at the height of the Great Depression that the erection of the first tree in Rockefeller Center took place. It started as “a modest Depression-era pick-me-up for Rockefeller Center construction workers building the 14-building Rockefeller Center complex that was one-year into construction. Workers at the time decided to pool their money to buy a 20-foot balsam fir to lift their spirits, decorating it with handmade garland and strings of cranberries from their families. In 1933, the first official Christmas Tree lighting ceremony took place after a Rockefeller Center publicist decided to establish it as an annual tradition; and in 1951, NBC televised the tree lighting for the first time. The first Swarovski star to be placed at the top of the tree was in 2004 but replaced in 2018 with the current over 9-feet wide and 900-pound star “made of three million Swarovski crystals radiating from 70 spikes.” Over the years, the Rockefeller Christmas Tree has become “considered the ‘worldwide symbol of Christmas.’”
Looking ahead, New York City’s highly anticipated Times Square celebration arrives in 23 days. This year will be more notable with the dropping at exactly 11:59 on December 31st of a new Times Square New Year’s Eve Ball. Dubbed the “Constellation Ball,” it is the ninth iteration since the New Year’s Eve Ball made its maiden descent from a flagpole atop One Times Square in 1907. Compared to the 1907 model that was made of iron and wood and adorned with one hundred 25-watt light bulbs, measuring 5-feet in diameter and weighing 700 pounds, the new model is the largest ever, weighing in at 12,350 pounds and measuring 12.5 feet wide. The crystals that make up the Ball are provided by Waterford — the official crystal maker of the Times Square New Year’s Eve Ball. Each year a trio of motifs is designed for the crystals to reflect the “Ball’s theme of ‘eternal positivity.’” Some notable past models include an aluminum Ball created in 1980 adorned with red lights and the addition of a green stem converting it into an apple for the ”I Love New York” marketing campaign from 1981 until 1988, while the 2000 millennium brought a complete redesign debuting the first crystal Ball that combined the latest in lighting technology with the most traditional of materials intended to “remind us of our past as we gazed into the future and the beginning of a new millennium” per historical information posted by the Times Square BID. Seven years later, in celebration of the 100th Anniversary of the Times Square Ball Drop tradition, a new crystal Ball was created with state-of-the-art LED lighting technology. Today, the “lowering of the Ball has become the world’s symbolic welcome to the New Year, attracting “hundreds of thousands of people” willing to wait for hours in the cold to view the famous Ball-lowering from One Times Square, formerly known as the Times Tower and owned by the New York Times until 1961.
Source: https://www.6sqft.com/the-history-of-the-rockefeller-center-christmas-tree-a-nyc-holiday-tradition/
Source: https://www.timessquarenyc.org/nye/nye-history-times-square-ball