After the lights come down
A spruce from a front yard in West Edmeston will light up Rockefeller Plaza on December 2. After the holidays, its wood will go to Habitat for Humanity.
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On November 5, a crane lifted an eleven-ton spruce onto a flatbed in West Edmeston, New York. Its branches had been drawn in for the ride. Two days later it was in Rockefeller Plaza. Rockefeller Center puts the spread of its branches at about 50 feet. There’s something improbable about seeing a tree of that size in Midtown, even before anyone turns the lights on.
The 2026 Rockefeller Center Christmas tree lighting is Wednesday, December 2. Rockefeller Center lists the ceremony from 7 to 10 p.m. Eastern. The area closest to the tree is reserved for the show and invited guests. If the tree itself is what you want to see, go on another night. The lights will be on into January, and you’ll have time to look at the way the plaza frames the tree.
A front yard in West Edmeston
Before it had a place in New York City, this tree belonged to the house beside it. In interviews with local station WBNG, the people who knew it described two periods of its life. Carl Camenga and his son Wade planted it in the early 1970s next to the house Carl had built. Rebecca Decker, who now owns the property, agreed to donate it after Rockefeller Center got in touch. The Camengas called her afterward to tell her who had planted it.
Rockefeller Center estimates the spruce is about 75 years old. The early-1970s date is when the family remembers planting it at the house. By the time it was selected, the tree stood 76 feet high and measured about 50 feet across. The move to Manhattan covered roughly 200 miles. For a few weeks, a tree whose scale once made sense against a house has to hold its own against a tower.
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