Oohs, Aahs and Ehs at this Season's Rockefeller Center Tree

amNewYork is reporting that some non-"green" grinches are boo-hooing the LED lights on Rockefeller Center's tree this year. Powered by solar panels and lit up with 30,000 energy-efficient LEDs for the first time in history, the environmentally friendly decor just isn't doing it for some holiday revelers. Guess it's not the 1930s anymore.

A tourist from California told Newsday there was a "warmer glow" from the old lights, "The bright whites look better than the colors they have this year." And when amNY compared this year's tree to one from years past, it does seem dimmer, but "Rockefeller Center officials say the brightness is the same," emphasizing that the new bulbs give off the same amount of light.

Still, one nearby street vendor said he'd heard grumbling this season from tourists about the dimly lit tree. Meanwhile, the tall piece of timber, in one final act of being "green," will be turned into mulch after it's taken down on January 8th.

Have your own tree you're ready to send to the chipper? Mulchfest is running Saturday and Sunday this weekend, more details here.

Photo via KarenKripp's Flickr.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Carlson in Arts and Events on January 4, 2008 4:51 PM

Comments [rss]

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ledastray

Burn 'em brighter and longer. There's nothing like the warm glow from incandescent lighting. I'm hoarding now. It's indecent that I, or anyone, should be told what to use according to their agenda. Do you really think that by switching the lights to LED is going to help? Wake up! Next you'll be wearing hemp thongs, bra's and brushing your teeth with a twig by the campfire.

Kevin Bracken

I absolutely love LED's, and I definitely prefer them to the old incandescent bulbs hands down.

Bouncing Soul

I went to see the tree this year for the first time since I was a child and I was not impressed. I guess everything is bigger and better when you're enchanted by Christmas.

If they really want to go green, next year instead of chopping down a tree and wasting a ton of electricity, the can inflate a giant Grinch and put him in the place of the tree.

tnturner

Sure the lights may be more energy efficient, but that doesn't omit the fact that there are still 30,000 of them.

obnoxious.

Frankybonz

The world can use a few less pines. We could use more leafy trees in their place.

As pickles pointed out, it's not like it's going to waste anyhow.

pickles

The tree was supposed to be cut into lumber for Habitat for Humanity this year. I think just the branches are being mulched.

cucarachita

Aside from the non-greenness of cutting down the tree in the first place, yes, it's no use denying that the lights are at least perceived as dimmer due to being distinctly blue-ish, not warm. The "yellow/orange" lights are rendered greenish, like those familiar error lights on an electronic device.

As much as I'd like to use them, I find them ugly. The only way they're pretty is in their non-colored version which is a sort of bluish-white. And even then, who wants a blue-ish ectoplasmic light in the living room? One wants warm light for the holidays. It's a real pity.

Someone needs to come up with a warmer LED bulb, or a filter or something.

kedeady

Screw the lights, if they really want to go green they should stop cutting down huge trees every year that take over 100 years to get that big.