The “world’s most famous Christmas tree” this year was donated by the Russ family of East Greenbush. WAMC’s Samantha Simmons was there as the spruce destined for Rockefeller Center was cut down.
Judy Russ and her son, Liam, were running around the family property Thursday morning, jumping from supporting Rockefeller Center crew members to talking with family, neighbors and reporters.
Russ says the tree has been on her late-husband’s Rensselaer county property since the 1920s, making her son the fifth generation to enjoy the grandeur of the 75-foot-tall Norway spruce.
Russ says the moment was an exciting one, not a sad one.
“This has been our backdrop, that we've had birthday parties here, weddings here, all kinds of celebrations,” Russ said “So, it's just nice that our family tree gets to become the world's Christmas tree.”
The holiday tradition at Rockefeller Center began more than eight decades ago and is billed as a “quintessential New York Experience.”
Russ’ son’s elementary school class came to watch, too.
Russ says having his friends there to share in the moment was likely the best part of his day.
“He thought it was so cool that they were all here,” Russ said. “He asked to jump out of the window to say hi to them. He's just really excited to share all this with his friends in the community.”
The tree took all of five minutes to fell — but only after a week and a half of tying up branches, cleaning it up, and further preparing it for its more than 150-mile journey to Rockefeller Center.
Erik Pauze is Rockefeller Center’s head gardener. In July, he got a photo of the tree from a friend of the Russ family, and it was chosen as this year’s centerpiece soon after.
Since August, Pauze has been coming north almost weekly to care for the tree. He says the dry summer meant it drank almost 800 gallons each week of what he calls “compost tea.”
“This morning we came and we were prepared,” Pauze said. “We set up everything. We preset some of the hookups yesterday, and when we came, this morning was easier because we had a little win today. We were watching out for the win, but we had a perfect timeframe to do it right when we planned to do it. So, everything worked out great. We made a great cut and picked it up and laid it on the truck.”
Pauze, who has been head gardener since 1995, says he’s thinking about next year’s tree already, noting that it takes all year to prepare.
He says the ideal tree is something a person would want in their own living room, but bigger.
“It had a beautiful shape, and I got to tell you, this year, and when I came up in July, it had a beautiful green to it, and it looked really good,” Pauze said.
The Norway spruce will arrive at Rockefeller Center Saturday. It will be escorted down to New York City, at a speed of under 40 miles per hour, for the safety of onlookers and the tree itself.
The tree, which has the largest cones of any of the spruce varieties, will be decorated with more than 50,000 lights and topped with a Swarovski star. Millions are expected to visit it once it’s in place in Manhattan.
The lights will be switched on, on Dec. 3 during a live broadcast of “Christmas in Rockefeller Center.” The lights will remain on until mid-January.
This is only the second time in history a tree from the Capital Region was selected to serve as the Big Apple’s holiday centerpiece. The first was in 2022 — an 82-foot Norway spruce from Queensbury.
Maureen Kirsch has lived in East Greenbush for many decades, specifically how many she wouldn’t say. But she says a tree coming from her community is special.
“It's cool because everybody in the world sees it,” Kirsch says.
Donor Russ says while her backyard is going to look relatively empty for a long time, Rockefeller Center is donating two Norway spruces, and a local farm has also reached out.
After the holidays, the 45-foot-wide tree will be milled into lumber for Habitat for Humanity, something Russ embraces.
“It's really exciting knowing that Habitat for Humanity is going to get the wood after the next family gets to build a home and make their own Christmas traditions and holiday traditions, just like we did here,” Russ said.
