Haul out the holly! Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree arrives in New York City

NEW YORK -- The Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree arrived in New York City on Saturday, signaling the start of the holiday season in the Big Apple.

The 74-foot Norway spruce was driven into Manhattan's Center Plaza, where it was hoisted in place by a crane. It will take 5 miles (about 8 kilometers) of light strands with more than 50,000 multicolored LED bulbs to wrap the tree, whose diameter measures 43 feet (13 meters). A Swarovski star crown sparkling with 3 million crystals will top it.

The towering conifer, donated by the Albert family in West Stockbridge, Massachusetts, was cut down Thursday morning and loaded onto a flatbed truck for the 140-mile (225-kilometer) trip. It is the first Rockefeller Center Christmas tree to come from Massachusetts since 1959.

It was met in New York City by smiling crowds who held cellphones aloft from behind barriers as crews attached cables to the giant tree, pounded a stake into its base and guided it into place.

“The crowds were big today. They were one of the biggest crowds I’ve ever seen that come to a tree raising,” said Erik Pauze, the head gardener at Rockefeller Center, who wore a candy cane-striped hard hat.

He first spotted the tree in 2020 while in search of another tree. Once in its new home, the adjustments began to get it ready for the elaborate tree-trimming to come.

“We stood it up, and now we’re going to lower some of the branches down by hand, because they’re so heavy and so big that we have to lower them down by hand,” Pauze said.

The lighting ceremony is Dec. 4.

When the tree is taken down in January, it will be milled into lumber for Habitat for Humanity.