The Best Christmas Trees in the USA

What Are Some of the Best Christmas Trees in America?

It is that time of year again when Christmas trees are ablaze with twinkling lights and colorful ornaments. Today, throughout the United States, you will find a dazzling assortment of Christmas trees. Some people make a special trip just to see them. Here is our top list of the best, most stunning and unusual Christmas Trees in the United States.

^{_{Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree, New York City}}

The Rockefeller Center tree located just west of 5th Avenue from 47th through 51st Streets in New York City dates back to the Depression era with the first tree placed there in 1931. The workers on the construction site pooled their money and purchased a 20-foot balsam fir tree. They decorated it with garlands made by their families.  In December 1933, the Rockefeller Center decided to make the Christmas tree an annual tradition and held the first tree lighting ceremony that year.  The tallest tree displayed at Rockefeller Center was a 100 foot Norway Spruce that came from Killingworth, Connecticut. The 2021 Rockefeller Center Christmas tree is a 79 foot tall Norway Spruce that is decorated with more than 50,000 multi-colored LED lights on approximately five miles of wire! The tree is crowned with a three-dimensional Swarovski star that features 70 spikes and is covered in three million crystals. 

_{^{National Christmas Tree, Washington D.C.}}

President Calvin Coolidge was the first president to light the National Christmas tree in 1923 on the Ellipse. The tree was 48 feet high and decorated with 2,500 electric bulbs in red, white, and green. As the tree was lit a local choir and a quartet from the U.S. Marine Band performed. This tradition continues today. General Electric has been producing and donating lighting and decorations since 1963.  In 2008, powered by light-emitting chips, the National Christmas Tree was 50% more energy efficient than the 2007 display. The 2021 National Christmas tree, lit with LEDs is decorated with one-of-a-kind ornaments made by Americans from every walk of life and representing every state and territory. The ornaments symbolize the history, heritage, and culture of their homelands.

_{^{Coeur D’Alene, Idaho}}

The Coeur D’Alene Resort has a 162-foot tall grand fir Christmas tree that sets the record for the world’s tallest living Christmas tree. It is festively decorated with more than 40,000 lights that twinkle in time to the music of Jingle Bells. The tree is crowned with a ten-foot-wide star. In addition to the tree, there is a Holiday Light Show that was lauded by USA Today as one of the ten best public holiday light displays in the country.

_{^{Dallas, Texas}}

The tallest indoor Christmas tree is located in Texas at the Dallas Galleria, a popular shopping mall. This large tree makes shopping here a festive event that has been a tradition since 1984. The assembly of this tree begins in early November takes about five days to complete. It is strung with 450,000 LED lights, 10,000 ornaments and is topped off with a 100-pound ten-foot-tall star. A highlight of this tree is the skating rink at its base. The mall also has 44 palm trees, two 36 foot trees, two 12 foot trees, and six, 9-foot trees that are covered with twinkling lights.

_{^{Lahaina, Maui}}

Nestled between the West Maui Mountains and the shimmering Pacific Ocean,  Lahaina, is also the original seat of Hawaiian royalty. The Lahaina Banyan Tree at Banyon Tree Court is the largest Banyon tree in Hawaii and in America. Planted as an eight-foot-tall seedling in 1873, it has grown to over 60 feet tall with a circumference that spans more than a quarter-mile. For the last 24 years, this tree has been decked out with thousands of festive holiday lights on limbs that stretch over two-thirds of an acre.

^{_{Chandler, Arizona}}

Arizona folklore has it that fire in 1957 destroyed all the Christmas decorations in Chandler, so the town decided to replace them with tumbleweeds, and a tradition was born. This Christmas tree is made of more than one thousand tumbleweeds that community members gather throughout the year. Once gathered the tumbleweeds are sorted and placed on a 25-foot wireframe. They are sprayed with white paint, flame retardant, and dusted with glitter. The tree is then covered with more than 1200 lights. The construction of the tree takes about two weeks for the Chandler Park Division to complete.

^{_{Del Ray Beach, Florida}}

Travel and Leisure Magazine calls this 100-foot tree the best tree in Florida. Is it real? No, but it is still spectacular! It is festooned with 30,000 ornaments and 15,000 LED lights and has an ice rink and carousel around it. It has been one of the largest and most celebrated trees in Florida for the past 26 years. The tree starts going up in October and takes almost two weeks to complete. There are also four villages around the tree filled with Santas helpers.

_{^{The Biltmore | Asheville, North Carolina}}

As dusk turns into night the majestic 55 foot Norway spruce Christmas tree located in front of Biltmore is lit as guests make their way along a pathway of luminaries.  This estate is decked out in a grand style with thousands of lights and ornaments and miles of garland. In the Banquet Hall guests are greeted by the tallest tree in the house that reflects a tradition that dates to 1895 when the Vanderbilts held court. In addition to the 35 foot high Fraiser fir in the Banquet room that is adorned with hundreds of lights and ornaments, visitors will marvel at an additional 55 Christmas trees lavishly decorated throughout the house. Christmas is taken seriously here with another 58 locations around the estate decorated to the hilt including the Winery and Tasting Room and Antler Hill Village.

^{_{Carlsbad, California}}

At the Legoland Resort in Carlsbad, workers get paid to build with Legos! Workers build a massive Christmas tree that is created out of 245,000 plus Duplo blocks! It takes workers several months to assemble the tree. This Lego tree stands 30 feet tall and is adorned with 11,000 LED lights and over 400 Lego ornaments. The entire venue of Lego Land is transformed into a massive holiday wonderland with many special events.

_{^{Corning, New York}}

The Corning Museum of Glass creates a magnificent 14 foot tall Glass Ornament Tree that showcases more than 2,000 hand-made glass ornaments created by Museum glassmakers. The tree is joined by other wonders in glass including a holiday meal made entirely of glass as well as a life-sized snowman and his family. A perk of visiting the museum is that you can make your own holiday glass ornament year-round at the studio.