These Midtown streets will be closed for the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree lighting this week

Prepare for a mess in Midtown on Wednesday

If the appearance of festive window displays in Midtown and the proliferation of Christmas trees on city sidewalks didn't already clue you in, allow us to: The holiday season has officially arrived in New York, and no singular event is a bigger holiday hoopla than the lighting of the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree.

This year's tree is, as in many other years, an enormous Norway spruce—the 72-foot-tall conifer weighs about 12 tons, and was trucked down to NYC from Walkill, New York, earlier this month.

On Wednesday, November 28, it'll be illuminated for the first time around 9 p.m., and millions of spectators are expected to take it all in, whether from their homes or from the extremely packed streets of Midtown.

And those streets will indeed be packed—the Department of Transportation has already designated Wednesday as a gridlock alert day, meaning that "travel through Midtown will take twice as long as a typical day of week," according to the agency. (So basically, don't drive if you don't have to.)

Additionally, some streets will be closed in Midtown to facilitate the tree lighting event, which is open to the public on a first-come, first-served basis. Here's the full list from the NYPD; streets will be closed at the police department's discretion, but according to "Gridlock" Sam Schwartz, the closures will begin around 3:30 p.m.:

• 46th Street between 5th Avenue and 6th Avenue
• 47th Street between 5th Avenue and 6th Avenue
• 48th Street between 5th Avenue and 6th Avenue
• 49th Street between 5th Avenue and 6th Avenue
• 50th Street between 5th Avenue and 6th Avenue
• 51st Street between 5th Avenue and 6th Avenue
• 52nd Street between 5th Avenue and 6th Avenue
• Rockefeller Plaza between 48th Street and 51st Street
• 6th Avenue between 46th Street and 52nd Street
• 5th Avenue between 46th Street and 52nd Street

And if you want to avoid "pedlock" at subway stations, best to either avoid the ones surrounding Rockefeller Center—so 47-50th Streets, and Fifth Avenue-53rd Street—or leave before the event begins or ends.