EAST GREENBUSH, N.Y. (AP) — The towering Christmas tree that will light up Rockefeller Center this holiday season is on its way to New York City.
The 75-foot-tall (23-meter-tall), 11-ton Norway spruce was felled Thursday morning in East Greenbush, an Albany suburb located about 150 miles (240 kilometers) north of Manhattan.
The tree was then loaded onto a 100-foot-long (31-meter-long) trailer as scores of people turned out for the occasion. It is expected to arrive at 30 Rockefeller Plaza on Saturday, where it will take its place in front of the midtown Art Deco skyscraper overlooking the plaza’s famous ice skating rink.
The tree will be wrapped with more than 50,000 multicolored, energy-efficient LED lights and crowned with a Swarovski star weighing 900 pounds.
It will be lit on Dec. 3 during a live TV broadcast hosted by country music star Reba McEntire. It will be displayed until mid-January, after which it will be milled into lumber for use by the affordable housing nonprofit Habitat for Humanity.
The tree was donated by homeowner Judy Russ and her family. She shared that the tree was planted by her husband’s great-grandparents in the 1920s.
“For this to now become the center of New York City Christmas is incredible,” Russ told local media.
The first Rockefeller Center Christmas tree was erected in 1931 as a morale booster during the Great Depression. The tradition has continued, with the first annual tree lighting ceremony taking place in 1933.
