EAST GREENBUSH, N.Y. (1010 WINS) -- This year’s Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree was felled outside of Albany on Thursday morning ahead of its trip to Midtown Manhattan for the annual tree lighting early next month.
Hundreds came out to see the Norway Spruce cut down in East Greenbush, New York, about 2.5 hours north of Manhattan.
Erik Pauze, the head gardener for Rockefeller Center, has been picking out the famous tree for almost 40 years.
“I love how everybody gets all excited about it, I love the town being excited,” he said.
The tree’s owner, Judy Russ, is originally from Middle Village, Queens, and called it a "full circle moment."
“This tree has been on my husband’s family’s property since the 1920s,” she said. “My husband’s great grandparents were the people who planted it. For this to now become the center of New York City Christmas is incredible.”
The tree was loaded onto a truck to be transported to 30 Rock, where it’ll be wrapped in more than 50,000 lights and crowned with a Swarovski star for the tree lighting ceremony on Wednesday, Dec. 3.