The Radio City Christmas Spectacular By the Numbers

Last week I rounded up five reasons you should make seeing the Radio City Christmas Spectacular an absolute priority this holiday season.

In the very weird chance you’re not totally convinced yet, here are some fun facts about the nation’s #1 holiday show…

Photo courtesy Radio City Christmas Spectacular.

More than 1 million pairs of 3D glasses are distributed to patrons to experience the new “3DLive” scene featured in this year’s production.

It takes more than 250 people just to stage the Radio City Christmas Spectacular, including the cast and crew.

There is a cast of 150 including Rockettes, singers, dancers, musicians and more.

More than 1,200 costumes are worn in the show. Each Rockette changes costumes eight times during the show, and in a few of the changeovers, they have as little as 78 seconds in which to change their costumes.

The double-decker bus in the “New York at Christmas” scene weighs 7 tons! It’s 34 feet long and 12 feet high. In the course of the show’s 8-week run, it will travel approximately 37 miles onstage. When the bus is offstage, it hangs 23 feet in the air at stage left for storage.

During the show’s run, the animals from the Nativity scene drink 450 bottles of water and eat 340 bales of hay and 560 loaves of 7-grain bread.

Both the “Parade of the Wooden Soldiers” and the “Living Nativity” scenes have been part of the Radio City show since 1933.

Throughout the season, the wardrobe department will go through more than 15,000 red dots used to brighten the cheeks of the Rockettes in the “Wooden Soldier” routine.

The production staff for every show includes 23 carpenters, 20 electricians, 15 prop people, 7 sound people, 28 wardrobe people, 2 projectionists, 5 stage managers, 8 animal handlers and 40 orchestra members.

180 laundry baskets
are used during each show to hold and carry the cast’s shoes, laundry and costumes.

Between the Rockettes, chorus and Santa, more than 1,200 pairs of shoes are worn per show.

350 loads of laundry
are done per week, non-stop most days, for 16 hours per day during the week, plus 20 hours per day over the weekend.

…and a partridge in a pear tree.