This year’s 74-foot Rockefeller Center Christmas tree en route

BOSTON (AP) — A giant Norway spruce that will serve as this year’s Rockefeller Center Christmas tree was en route to New York City on Thursday from its tiny Massachusetts hometown.

The 74-foot-high (23-meter-high) conifer, donated by a family that owned it, was cut down Thursday morning in West Stockbridge and hoisted onto a flatbed truck by crane. It will travel 140 miles (225 kilometers) to Rockefeller Center, where it will be erected on Saturday. The tree, to feature 50,000 multi-colored lights and a Swarovski star crown, will remain on display until mid-January.

Erik Pauze, the head gardener for Rockefeller Center responsible for finding the tree and helping transport it, said he first spotted this green giant back in 2020.

“I saw the beautiful Norway Spruce as I drove down the road, and it was right in front of me,” he was quoted by Rockefeller Center’s newsletter as saying. “I knocked on the door and met Earl Albert. I asked if he would someday consider donating the Tree to Rockefeller Center. His answer was immediately yes.”

Shawn Albert, Earl Albert’s daughter-in-law, recalled that Pauze stopped by two days after Earl Albert’s wife, Lesley, had died. She said her father-in-law immediately agreed to donate the tree, taking it as a sign from Lesley, who loved Christmas. The family decorated the tree each year with Christmas lights.

The family couldn’t have a funeral for Lesley Albert because of the pandemic, so Thursday’s event, which included carolers sending off the tree, was a way to remember her, the Alberts said.

“She was such a huge part of the community,” Shawn Albert said in a video of the event provided by Rockefeller Center. “To me, this is like her gathering that we finally get to have and we finally get to honor her.”

Michael Albert, Shawn’s husband, and Lesley Albert’s son, recalled that his mother was a nurse, and a “giving person” so sharing the tree with the community made sense.

“Let it go to New York City and let the world see it,” he said.

The first Rockefeller Center Christmas tree to come from Massachusetts since 1959, the towering spruce has drawn plenty of attention in West Stockbridge. Locals and tourists alike have flocked to see the 11-ton (10-metric ton) tree in recent days, as workers high up in the canopy prepped it for its trip to New York.

On Thursday, several dozen people, some dressed as Santa Claus, watched from behind a barrier as workers felled the tree.

Michael and Tania Hardinger, tourists from Denmark, flew into New York and made the drive north to see the tree last weekend before it was cut down.

Hardinger said the trip was inspired by their love of Christmas, with the family having two and sometimes three Christmas trees in their house in Copenhagen. Both musicians will return to Denmark to play a few concerts before coming back to New York to do some Christmas shopping and visit the tree again, this time at Rockefeller Center.

“We’re big on Christmas and the Rockefeller tree is something we must see every year,” Hardinger said. “It’s so beautiful and it’s fantastic.”