The Most Spectacular Christmas Trees, Compared [Christmas]

Today, Rockefeller Center switches on its towering holiday gift to New York: a 74-foot spruce draped with 30,000 lights and 5 miles of wire. But New York's tree is not actually the biggest or the brightest on the block.

If you're looking for the tallest tree in America, visit Phoenix. Looking for the heaviest? Hitch a ride on over to San Francisco. Well surely, the brightest tree must be in the Big Apple, right? Nuh uh: Salt Lake City. In fact, despite its undeniably awesomeness, the only superlative that New York's Norway Spruce can rightfully own is that it uses the most electricity. Click on the image above for a supersized, super-in-depth view of the Nation's most favored pines.