Lest you feel the NYC Municipal Archives' WNYC Collection is made up of only parades and tree lighting ceremonies, we've decided to start up a new mixtape mini-series of songs culled from the hours of archival audio we catalog.

In December 1942, just three years after the tree lighting spectacular at City Hall when one of Mayor La Guardia's children flipped a switch and instantly lit up 22 trees throughout the boroughs, strict wartime dimout regulations dictated how people in New York, New Jersey and Delaware celebrated the holiday season.

On the occasion of the annual lighting of the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center, we present to you the first of two vintage radio broadcasts we've found in the archives of similar ceremonies in the city.