Rockefeller Center Christmas tree headed to New York City

NEW YORK (AP) — This year's Rockefeller Center Christmas tree was cut down on Thursday and will head to New York City to usher in the holiday season.

The 76-foot-tall (23-meter-tall) Norway spruce is expected to arrive on Saturday from West Edmeston in upstate New York. The conifer is approximately 75 years old and measures 50 feet (15 meters) in diameter.

Video showed crews and a crane hoisting the tree onto a flatbed truck before it makes the 200-mile (322-kilometer) trip to its perch at Rockefeller Plaza in Midtown Manhattan, overlooking the iconic skating rink.

Then the tree will be wrapped with more than 50,000 energy-efficient, multicolored LED lights and crowned with a 900-pound (408-kilogram) Swarovski star. It will be lit up during a live broadcast lighting ceremony on Dec. 2.

The tradition dates back to 1931, when crews building the Rockefeller Center put up a small Christmas tree with handmade garlands. The first formal lighting ceremony took place in 1933.

The Rockefeller Christmas tree will be on display until Jan. 9, after which it will be milled into lumber for the housing nonprofit Habitat for Humanity.