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This Year's Rockefeller Christmas Tree Sacrifice Is From.... Maryland!
By
Jen Carlson
Published Nov 4, 2021
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Courtesy of Tishman Speyer
By
Jen Carlson
Published Nov 4, 2021
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Every year for around nine decades, "we" (a team of arboreal assassins hired by Rockefeller Center?) chop down a very large tree from Somewhere Else, haul its carcass on a flatbed truck to Midtown, and prop the dead thing up for a few months. This twinkling trophy kill becomes a seasonal centerpiece in Manhattan, a holiday beacon drawing crowds of both tourists and natives—even we have come to love the tradition. And since our collective arboreal bloodlust runs deep, it's a tradition we must continue annually (even during a pandemic!)... but we can switch things up a little. Case in point: this year's Norway Spruce comes all the way from Maryland! A first, according to the press release we received this morning.
This 79-foot-tall suburban tree will be arriving in the Big City for its first (and last) time on November 13th, two days after it's felled. Then, "after being wrapped with more than 50,000 multi-colored, energy efficient LED lights and crowned with a Swarovski star, the tree will be lit during the live broadcast on Wednesday, December 1st." It will remain through January 16th, 2022, at which time it will transition over, and its body turned to lumber to help a family build a Habitat for Humanity home (which is a wonderful tradition that began in 2007).
Rockefeller Center will be offering more details on arrival and tree lighting ceremonies here soon.
The first tree, 1931.
Courtesy of Tishman Speyer
The Rockefeller Center tree tradition began in 1931, when Depression-era workers were demolishing buildings to clear the way for what would become the British Empire Building, part of the future Rockefeller Center. The first tree was just 20-feet tall, and was meant to lift spirits; an official annual tree lighting began two years later, and the first skating rink opened there in 1936. That year there were two trees.
You may remember that last year an owl was discovered in the tree—that wasn't the first time one of the trees has arrived with a stowaway, so hopefully this time around it will be thoroughly inspected so as to not displace any local wildlife. Although last year's incident did end happily, and with this cinematic masterpiece:
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Jen Carlson
Jen Carlson is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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