Be aware that when the tree lighting ends, there are huge crowds of people dispersing, so once you do get away, you really have to hustle to make the CP in time. I've done it twice. So the second time, I watched the tree lighting from where the characters' double decker bus parks. You don't get to see much (not at all) of the show, but you get a real nice view of the tree, then you can just follow the character bus back along WS to make your path to CP pretty clear (you go by way of Mexico and Norway).