Christmas Tree Lights Up Daley Plaza

(CBS) -- In 101 years of Chicago tree-lighting ceremonies, there was nothing quite like this year's.

It wasn't the 57-foot Colorado blue spruce, or the 47,800 LED lights. It was the singing that set it apart.

Heavy-metal rocker Dee Snider, who was the focus of a Congressional hearing on explicit lyrics when he was lead singer of the band Twisted Sister in 1985, helped throw the switch, and sang a mash-up of the standard "O Come All Ye Faithful" with Twister's Sister's arena-rock anthem, "We're Not Going to Take It."

Some were stunned. Others whooped it up.

The odd pairing is one of several from Snider's musical "A Rock 'n Roll Christmas Tale," which is playing at Water Tower Place, and which he calls a "family show" for a new generation.

Snider accepted the crowd's cheers, and told them, "I'm loving Chicago, and Chicago's loving me."

The singer and his wife of 38 years are New Yorkers, but have moved to Chicago for the run of the show, through Jan. 4, and said his children and grandchildren (now that's a scary thought) are coming to Chicago to see the show.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel was not on hand for the ceremony, also a departure from custom.

Tree donor Donna Atkinson brought her family. Atkinson offered the tree to the city for three consecutive years before the city accepted it. She said the tree looks beautiful, but said so does her Elgin home, now that the tree no longer casts a perpetual shadow on it.