Rebecca Decker's 75-year-old Norway spruce came down from her West Edmeston yard on Thursday morning, beginning its trip to become this year's Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree. The 76-foot-tall tree was uprooted after Decker donated it for the holiday display in Manhattan.
Decker said she thought the request was a joke when the Manhattan garden team first asked about the tree. She was only half sold on keeping it in the yard, too. She had been thinking about cutting it down because she feared it might fall, then Erik Pauze knocked on her door and made the ask official.
Pauze had been watching the spruce since 2020, long before Decker bought the property where it stands. He said the size was perfect, and later Jackie and Matt McGinley reached out in June to point him toward the tree. That message, Pauze said, was the confirmation he needed that the tree belonged at Rockefeller Center.
The selection leaves a gap in the yard as much as it adds a centerpiece to Midtown. The tree was planted 75 years ago by Carl Camenga, the home's original builder and owner, and WBNG News 12 reported that he died on Christmas Day ten years ago. Decker and her three children moved into the home five years ago, and now she says she is a little sad to see the spruce go. She added that she does not yet know how the yard will look without it.
The tree will land in Midtown on Saturday, then wait until the Dec. 2 tree lighting to shine. It will also appear in the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and be dressed with 50,000 crystals and a Swarovski star. Decker plans to make the four-hour trip to Manhattan with her kids for the lighting, a final visit that turns a backyard tree into a holiday landmark.
