Jaunted

· Christmas Tree at Daley Plaza - Chicago, Illinois
In the past citizens of Chicago have enjoyed trees that were almost 100-feet tall. Technically there were several trees that were kind of patched together to make one behemoth, but whatever, it was still pretty cool. However, this year times are tough so the tree was reduced a bit. You’d think that Oprah would like jump in and write a check to help the city out. Despite the reasons for downsizing, the city’s 60-foot tall tree is still impressive and will be shining brightly into 2010. The Blue Spruce is decorated with about 7,000 red, white, and green LED lights. Christkindlmarket Chicago sits right next door, so make sure to pick up some seasonal gifts at the city’s German winter holiday market.

· Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree – New York, New York
Everyone has seen this tree on television, but if you haven’t seen it in real life, you’re missing out. It’s definitely the world’s most famous tree, so we just had to include it as one of our top picks. This year’s tree was illuminated for the first time on December 2, and it will remain shining into the first week of 2010. Every year tree engineers scout out the surrounding area—including Canada—in search of the perfect winter specimen for the display. The honor this year goes to a 76-foot tree from Brookfield, Connecticut. About five miles of lights decorate the entire thing so give yourself some time if you get to see it this year.

· South Coast Plaza Christmas Tree – Costa Mesa, California
Each year the shopping meccas near Los Angeles battle it out for the year’s best tree. Newport Beach’s Fashion Island has some construction going on this year so they only popped for a 40-foot tree—guess we won’t be spending any cash over there this year! With more than 20,000 lights this year’s champion of Christmas is the tree at the South Coast Plaza. The thing is 96-feet of white fir, and it was dragged all the way from Mt. Shasta to its new holiday home. It’s hard not to choose this mall for you holiday shopping this year.

· Macy’s Great Tree – Atlanta, Georgia
The chances of a white Christmas in Atlanta are slim to none, but that doesn’t mean that the city doesn’t get into the holiday spirit. This year’s tree is about 60-feet tall and weighs around 12,000 pounds—hopefully they got one of those industrial strength tree stands. This year’s decorations include snowflakes, stars, and ornaments the size of basketballs. Of course there’s plenty of lights too. They have strobe lights, 400 internally lit ornaments, and 4,000 bulbs on top of it all. This tree has been a tradition in the city since the 1940s. For tree historians out there, the tree was named after Rich’s Department Store until Macy’s took it over.

Related Stories:
· Holiday Light Show 2009 [Official Site]
· Christmas Tree at Daley Plaza [Official Site]
· Rockefeller Center [Official Site]
· Holiday Kickoff at South Coast Plaza Tree Lighting [OC Register]
· The Macy's Great Tree [WSBTV 2]
· The Top Five Places To Have A Drive-Thru Christmas [Jaunted]

[Photo of NYC's Famous Tree: J Gutierrez]