NEW YORK — She's a beaut, Clark!
The massive Christmas tree that will brighten New York City this holiday season has arrived at Rockefeller Center.
The tree arrived Saturday and was lifted by crane into place outside Rockefeller Center in Manhattan.
Hailing from Vestal, New York, the tree stands 80 feet tall and weighs about 12 tons. The tree will now be decorated with 50,000 LED lights and a Swarovski star.
The spruce will be lit during the 91st Christmas in Rockefeller Center tree lighting ceremony.
This year's celebration airs Wednesday, Nov. 29, on NBC. Kelly Clarkson will pull double duty at the annual two-hour holiday affair as host and musical guest.
In 2022, the tree at Rockefeller Plaza was an 82-foot Norway spruce from Queensbury, New York.
In 2021, the Rockefeller Christmas tree was a 79-foot-tall, 46-foot-wide Norway spruce from Elkton, Maryland.
In 2020, the Center's tree received worldwide attention after a worker setting up the tree discovered a northern saw-whet owl inside. The owl, dubbed Rockefeller, made the 170-mile journey from upstate New York to the Big Apple in the tree.
The bird was taken to the Ravensbeard Wildlife Center in the Hudson Valley, where she dined on mice before returning to the wild. The center said the northern saw-whet owl is one of the smallest in the northeast.
The owl was honored with her own Frontier Airlines' plane tail as well as a children's book.
The tradition of the Rockefeller Christmas tree dates back more than 90 years to 1931 during the Great Depression.
The first official tree-lighting ceremony occurred two years later in 1933 in front of the then eight-month-old RCA Building (the current Comcast Building).
The Christmas tree gathering was enhanced in 1936 with the opening of the Rockefeller Plaza outdoor ice-skating rink.
NBC-TV televised the tree lighting for the first time in 1951 on “The Kate Smith Show” and as part of the nationwide “Howdy Doody” television show from 1953-55.
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