The 5 Tallest Real Christmas Trees In America Are Truly Stunning Sights

Once Thanksgiving is over, the U.S. goes all in on Christmas decorations — and one beloved tradition is the Christmas tree. You can see them through windows in people's homes or taking center stage in city displays. And as often happens in America, bigger is better, especially when it comes to Christmas trees. Guinness World Records has even hailed the 212-foot Douglas fir displayed at Northgate Shopping Center in Seattle in December 1950 as the tallest living cut Christmas tree ever erected.

While the tree at Rockefeller Center in New York City is one of the most famous and breathtaking Christmas trees in the world, this year's spruce stands only 75 feet tall – more than 10 feet shorter than the country's five tallest real Christmas trees in 2025. These towering trees are all decked out for the season and have become popular holiday pilgrimage sites for visitors year after year.

Fort Worth, Texas, is full of cowboy charm – and Christmas cheer. The 79th annual Christmas tree in downtown Sundance Square is an 86-foot Norway spruce from Michigan. It took four days to get the huge tree from Texas, and it was installed in mid-November. Once in place, crews decorated it with thousands of lights, and over 50 local artists crafted many of the giant ornaments that hang on the tree, helping give it a distinctive look.

There was some drama this season: An ornament was reportedly stolen from the tree, according to CBS News. But all is calm now; the hand-painted ornament — featuring a cat on a piñata — has since been returned.

The full tree, with all its ornaments intact, was lit during the official ceremony on December 2, 2025, kicking off the Sundance Square December schedule, which is jam-packed with fun. Santa is set to make several appearances, and on each weekend in December, there's a market where you can shop for gifts.

The tree pictured here is from 2025.

The centerpiece of Kansas City's Crown Center is the Mayor's Christmas Tree, which rises 100 feet tall and comes from Oregon. It's actually quite the engineering feat to get it put together, with KCTV 5 reporting that it was transported partially bare and that the branches were just reattached on site.

The tree is lit up throughout the season, and each December weekend evening before Christmas, Crown Center hosts a light-and-music show. There's also ice skating at the Crown Center Ice Terrace and a holiday market (with Hallmark items, whose headquarters is at Crown Center), and appearances by Santa.

The origin story of the Mayor's Christmas Tree dates back to the 1870s, when then-Mayor George Shelley is said to have bought a tree at his own expense for the whole town to enjoy and distributed food, wood, and other necessities to needy citizens. This also laid the foundation for what would eventually become the Mayor's Christmas Tree Fund, which helps spread Christmas cheer to those in need in Kansas City. And each year, a new Mayor's Christmas Tree ornament is made from the previous year's tree, with proceeds from its sales going to the fund. The 2025 ornament is the "Sweet Snowman."

The tree pictured here is from 2024.

Los Angeles may be better known for palm trees than pine, but the city is home to two of the country's tallest real Christmas trees. One of them is at The Grove, an upscale shopping center and one of Los Angeles' celebrity hotspots. This year's tree is a 100-foot white fir sourced from Mount Shasta, according to Fox LA. The annual lighting ceremony was hosted by Lance Bass and featured performances by Nick Carter and Dasha, along with fireworks, a drone show, and, of course, the arrival of Santa. You can watch it online to help get yourself in the holiday spirit.

Beyond the tree, The Grove really goes all out for the holidays. You can take your photo with Santa in Santa's Workshop, snowfall effects blanket the plaza at 6 and 8 p.m., and just about everywhere you look, there are lights and decorations. Even the double-decker trolley that makes its way through the sprawling shopping complex is decorated for Christmas.

The tree pictured here is from 2025.

For another standout Los Angeles Christmas tree, head to the Citadel Outlets. Similar to The Grove, this year's tree is a white fir from Mount Shasta, but the Citadel version tops it by about 15 feet, standing at an impressive 115 feet tall. Transporting the massive tree to Los Angeles required it to be fully deconstructed, and the trunk traveled on one giant truck while the branches followed on another. It took crews more than a week to reassemble the tree on site. Once complete, it was decorated with about 10,000 ornaments and 18,000 lights, according to LAist.

"We just like to do things big, but we always like to make things memorable," Ken Crow, Citadel Outlets general manager, explained to the outlet. They've certainly managed that, particularly if you visit in the evenings throughout December. From 5 to 8 p.m., "snow" falls on the plaza at the top of each hour, making everything just a bit more magical. You can take photos with Santa and participate in a gingerbread man scavenger hunt.

The tree pictured here is from 2023.

Ferndale is a Victorian village in Northern California, and one of its time-honored holiday traditions is the lighting of a 162-foot-tall Christmas tree. The first official lighting was held in 1934, and the coolest thing about it is that it's still growing, so it may continue to get taller over time. Volunteer firefighters decorate the tree each year, and it is visible from as far as 5 miles away.

"It really brings me happiness because Ferndale is just so special to me," Ferndale 4-H Group Member Gianna Regli told KRCR. "And when everybody comes together for this event, it's very heartwarming just to see kids handing out hot chocolate and cookies and just seeing the smiles on family's faces."

Ferndale's holiday event calendar includes a light show and ice skating at the Humboldt County fairgrounds. There's also an ugly sweater party at the Sitka Wine Lounge, and live music in downtown every Saturday before Christmas.

The tree pictured here is from 2019.

We scoured the internet for all the live Christmas trees in the U.S. to find the tallest, focusing only on traditional evergreen Christmas trees. Some places claim to have the tallest lighted living Christmas tree, but those are redwoods, so they were excluded from this list for consistency.

All of the trees featured here are real in the sense that they once grew from the ground — or still do, in the case of Ferndale. That said, several towering artificial trees also deserve honorable mention. These include the 110-foot LED tree in Denver, the 100-foot artificial tree in Delray Beach, Florida, and the 95-foot indoor Christmas tree at Galleria Dallas, which is widely recognized as the tallest indoor Christmas tree in the country.