This year, visitors to the traditional illumination of the Christmas tree in front of the Rockefeller Center in Manhattan had to wait a few seconds longer.
Despite the countdown and drum roll, nothing happened at first.
The tree, an almost 25 meter high Norway spruce from Queensbury north of New York, remained dark, the almost 50,000 colorful lights were off, the Swarovski star on the top was dim.
The world's most famous harbinger of Christmas began to shine slightly belatedly, causing tens of thousands of New Yorkers and visitors to the city to cheer.
Previously, musicians like Gwen Stefani, Alicia Keys, Jimmie Allen and Andrea Bocelli had her on the holiday with the classics "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town", "I'll Be Home for Christmas" and "You Make it Feel Like Christmas". tuned in.
The lighting ceremony has been one of New York's most well-known Christmas traditions for the past 90 years.
Back then, the city fathers had the first official tree decorated after craftsmen had hung tin cans, paper garlands and cranberries on a balsam fir tree during the construction of Rockefeller Center in 1931.
An ice rink, architect Daniel Libeskind's star studded with more than three million crystals and elaborate decorations along Rockefeller Plaza now attract more than 100 million visitors to Manhattan each Advent season.