Quantcast

The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

Hello Christmas. Rockefeller Tree Goes Up in Midtown

By DNAinfo Staff on November 12, 2009 8:34am  | Updated on November 12, 2009 10:58am

A 76-foot Christmas Tree stands over Rockefeller Center as the 2009 Christmas Tree. The tree will be dressed amidst a dispute between the union and NBC Universal Dec. 2.
A 76-foot Christmas Tree stands over Rockefeller Center as the 2009 Christmas Tree. The tree will be dressed amidst a dispute between the union and NBC Universal Dec. 2.
View Full Caption
Gabriela Resto-Montero

By Gabriela Resto-Montero

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

MANHATTAN — Christmas has come to town.

The annual sign that the holidays have arrived hits Manhattan Thursday when a 76-foot tall Christmas tree was hoisted into position at Rockefeller Center.

A strong wind made it tough for workers to put the tree in place, but it caused the sweet smell of pine needles to waft over the crowd that had gathered before the event started.

Mark Jones was operating the crane for Bay Crane, which usualy hoists the tree every year, for the first time since 2002.

His wife Patricia Jones, 38, from Seldon, N.Y., and their three children — Mark Jr., 13, Dillon, 11, Timothy, 9 — were there to watch.

A 76-foot Christmas Tree stands over Rockefeller Center as the 2009 Christmas Tree. The tree will be dressed in an official ceremony Dec. 2.
A 76-foot Christmas Tree stands over Rockefeller Center as the 2009 Christmas Tree. The tree will be dressed in an official ceremony Dec. 2.
View Full Caption
Gabriela Resto-Montero

"We are honored because this is something we've wanted to do for a long time," said Patricia Jones. The last time he hoisted the tree, his children were too young to appreciate it.

Mark Jones waved to his family as they watched him.  His children each held a sign that read, "My dad is the crane operator putting up the tree."

Manhattanites and tourists also enjoyed the show.

Ziad Jaber, 22, who lives on 39th Street and works for NBC, remembered watching the tree go up on TV when he was a kid.

"I never thought I'd see it in person," he said.

"It's good for tourism," Jaber said. "Ever since they opened the skating rink, it's been pretty busy."

Susan Decanio, 43, was in town from Jacksonville, Fla., for two days to receive cancer treatment at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. She stumbled upon the event with her 7-year-old daughter, Maxine.

"This made a bad thing a fun thing," Decanio said. "It's exciting we're here on the day they're putting up the tree, and we didn't know it."

Maxine added: "We never saw a crane put up a tree before."

For Charleen Anderson, 66, and her husband, Leith, who were in from Minnesota to watch the tree go up, the event had special significance.

"Next month it will be 45 years since we got engaged underneath the tree," Charlene Anderson said. "We've lived in a bunch of different places, and we always come back to see it."

In the years when they don't make it to Rockefeller Center, the couple watches the tree-lighting ceremony on TV. But it's better being here.

"I'm freezing, but it's worth it," she said.

Charleen Anderson holds a sprig from the 2009 Rockefeller Center Christmas tree. In Decemeber, Anderson and her husband Leith Anderson will celebrate 45 years of the day he proposed to her underneath the Rockefeller Christmas Tree.
Charleen Anderson holds a sprig from the 2009 Rockefeller Center Christmas tree. In Decemeber, Anderson and her husband Leith Anderson will celebrate 45 years of the day he proposed to her underneath the Rockefeller Christmas Tree.
View Full Caption
Gabriela Resto-Montero

The 10-ton tree, which is believed to be about 70 years old, was cut down from the front yard of Maria Corti, a Connecticut 5th-grade teacher, according to the New York Times.

The Norway Spruce will be used as lumber by Habitat for Humanity after Christmas for a Connecticut family in need, the paper reported.

The tradition of lighting a giant tree at Rockefeller Center began when construction workers at the site put up a tree in 1931. The official ceremony begain in 1933, according to several published reports.

The tree will go up at 10 a.m. and Rockefeller Center will host a tree lighting ceremony for the tree Dec. 2.

Susan Decanio and her daughter Maxine, 7, found the tree raising by accident. Decanio is receiving treatment for cancer at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Hospital and said finding the tree turned a bad thing into a good thing.
Susan Decanio and her daughter Maxine, 7, found the tree raising by accident. Decanio is receiving treatment for cancer at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Hospital and said finding the tree turned a bad thing into a good thing.
View Full Caption
Gabriela Resto-Montero