One of the perks of working at Rockefeller Center is that on the day of the ceremonious tree lighting I can watch it from my office.  This was something I was excited about and knew if I didn’t work in Rockefeller Center there was no way I would ever go. 

On the evening of November 28^th  Vanessa came over with wine, cheese and crackers.  Most of my coworkers had seen the lighting of the tree before and were not staying.  That just left Vanessa and myself to enjoy the festivities alone.  The crowds started gathering at the plaza around 5:00 but the event didn’t start until 7:00.  The actual tree lighting didn’t occur until around 9:00.  Suckers. 

 Being up on the 20^th floor it was kind of hard to hear what was going on.  We could look down and see pretty well and plus we could watch one of the Jumbotrons they had set up.  Honestly the whole waiting for the tree to light was kind of boring.  I was happy though to be away from the crowds and the cold, sipping on a bottle of wine while I waited for the switch to be flipped.  One thing that entertained us was watching stuff going on on the Jumbotron that wasn’t happening in real life.  Supposedly Tara Lipinski and U.S. Olympic skaters, Kyoko Ina and John Zimmerman was skating around the rink but we could clearly see the ice skating rink and what they showed on TV was not really happening.  It was also the same when they showed the Radio City Rockettes dancing in front of the tree.  I don’t know if these things were prerecorded or shot somewhere else.  Either way it was a big fat lie.  There were also, supposedly, other stars performing and speaking like: Marc Anthony, 98 Degrees, Natalie Cole, Destiny's Child, Wendie Malick, Tony Bennett, Jessica Simpson and Vanessa Williams.  I did hear singing going on but whether it was in Rockefeller Center or not I could not say.

The illusion of television aside when the 30,000 lights on the tree turned on it was quite amazing.  Vanessa and I stood there for a while and looked at the tree.  I was glad that I experienced it and knew I wouldn’t do it again.  Over the next month I grew to hate the tree and all the immobile tourist that made my lunch a Christmas hell.