Today was the day they install the Christmas tree and I wasn’t going to miss it. On my way to Rockefeller Center I ran into two ladies from Wisconsin who were unsure where they were, so I walked with them. They were lucky enough to have been there ice skating the night before when the tree arrived.

Meet the 2025 Tree

This year’s Christmas tree is from East Greenbush, NY, just south of Albany. It tree was donated by Judy Russ and her family. She said it was planted by her husband’s great-grandparents in the 1920s. You’ll see her in one of the videos below, standing near the press in a beautiful camel coat.

I stood in the shadow of giant 30 Rockefeller Plaza as the tree got lifted off of the flatbed.

Just a little history

A Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center goes back to the construction of the Plaza. The construction workers put up the first in 1931, and the first “official” tree was in 1933. During World War II the tree was unlit (1942-44).

Lifting the Tree

The tree is lifted up! It floated through the air and looked so cool. It’s about 9:15AM. NBC was blowing some “snow” over the work, which was a nice touch.

The tree is still bound up tightly from it’s roughly 90 minute ride to NYC.

The tree has been a Norway Spruce every year since 1983. Before that it was sometimes a White Spruce or, going back further, a Balsam.

They moved the tree closer to the stand, and lowered it so they could drill the steel spike into the bottom of the trunk. The spike looked to be about 2 feet in length.

The flatbed backed out – to a big cheer! – and a boom drove in.

The press were going wild! They opened the gate and let a bunch of them in to take photos for a few minutes. Good thing, they were packed tighter than we were.

Drilling the spike

Workers discuss the exact spot to drill the spike:

This tree is over 60 years old. Who picks the tree out? It’s Erik Pauze, the head gardener for Rockefeller Center. He’s worked on finding and transporting the tree for over 30 years!

Freeing the Tree

The workers cut many of the ropes holding the branches close to the body of the tree. Then the tree is slowly raised up. The workers help free up the branches and pick up the scraps. And take selfies!

In 2024 the branches were bound tightly until after the tree was placed in the stand. This year they’re back to unbinding the tree first.

Everybody grabs a rope – this tree is 11 tons!

It takes days of work to tie up all the branches to secure them and provide support for the trip to NYC. You can see how well wrapped they are. The tree was cut on November 6th.

The tree is ever so slowly raised up into an upright position, and rotates slightly:

You can see the branches springing back into place as the tree relaxes back into it’s natural standing position.

The Tree gets put into the stand

Time to place the tree into the stand. They all work together to get the steel spike placed. The tree will be anchored at four points: two on 30 Rock and two on the far side of the skating rink. Then the tension will be adjusted to make sure the tree stands straight.

Hooray! The tree is in place and it’s huge! Seventy-five feet and it looks it. Because of the narrowness of the streets here the length of the tree is limited to 100′.

Once the tree is lit Rockefeller Center expects around 750,000 people to walk through here each day!

The tree will be lit on Wednesday, December 3rd at 7PM. It will be the 93rd tree lighting and of course you can see it live on TV or YouTube.

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Sources:
Wiki – Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree
CNN – Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree Arrives in Manhattan
Rockefeller Center Magazine
Popular Mechanics – How Riggers Raise the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree