Christmas in Rockefeller Center LIne-Up

If you can't be there in person, the next best thing is TV for the annual lighting of the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree in New York City.  NBC's broadcast this year, on Wednesday at 8 p.m., will feature Justin Bieber, Michael Buble, Carole King, Neil Diamond, Big Time Rush, Tony Bennett, Cee Lo Green, Katharine McPhee, Javier Colon and the Radio City Rockettes.

The program will feature the debut of Bieber's music video with Mariah Carey for "All I Want for Christmas is You."

This is the 79th annual tree lighting.  The real centerpiece is a 74-feet-high Norway Spruce that is 46 feet in diameter and weighs 10 tons.

The tradition of the Rockefeller Christmas tree dates back to the Great Depression. First erected in 1933, the inaugural tree was decked with 700 lights and placed in front of the then eight-month-old RCA Building, now the GE Building. The Christmas tree gathering was enhanced in 1936 with the opening of the Rockefeller Plaza outdoor ice-skating pond. NBC-TV televised the tree lighting for the first time in 1951 on "The Kate Smith Show" and as part of the nationwide "Howdy Doody" television show from 1953-55.