11.29.2010 12:21 PM

How to Make Your Christmas Tree Like the Rockefeller Tree

The 30,000 LED holiday lights strung on the Rock's tree aren't just available to NYC bigwigs. See how you can illuminate your tree efficiently.

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The 2009-2010 Rockefeller Christmas Tree.

Photo: Photo by Bryan Bedder/Getty Images

By Dan Shapley

The Rockefeller Tree Lighting ceremony – probably the most famous Christmas tree lighting in the world – is Tuesday starting at 7 p.m. at New York City's Rockefeller Center (and, of course, on national television).

For another year, the public square, with the 74-foot tall Norway Spruce from Mahopac, N.Y., as its centerpiece, will sparkle with energy efficient LED light bulbs ... more than five miles of lights – 30,000 of them – along with the Swarovski crystal star. Some of the electricity used to power those lights will come from solar panels installed atop the Rock in 2007.

If energy efficiency doesn't get your blood running, a lineup of popular performers should.

The LED lights, first used in 2007, use a fraction of the electricity – about 35% – that traditional incandescent holiday lights do. For homeowners, LED lights have become far more accessible in recent years, in part due to the buzz created by the Rockefeller Center tree lighting.

Check out The Daily Green's guide to LED holiday lights, and finally answer that age-old question: Which is better for the environment, a real or artificial Christmas tree?

Also see: 7 Facts About Energy Efficient Lighting You Don't Know (But Should)

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