Rockefeller Center Christmas tree heads to New York City to usher in the holidays

This year’s Rockefeller Center Christmas tree is officially on its way to New York City after it was cut down on Thursday.Originating from a yard in West Edmeston, New York, the 76-foot (23-meter) Norway spruce is expected to arrive on Saturday. The conifer is roughly 75 years old and measures 50 feet (15 meters) in diameter.This year's Rockefeller Center Christmas tree was cut down on Thursday (AP Content Services for Tishman)A crane hoisted the tree onto a flatbed truck to begin its 200-mile (322-kilometer) trip to its perch at Rockefeller Plaza, where it will stand over the center’s famous skating rink.Once in place, the tree will be wrapped with more than 50,000 multicolored LED lights and crowned with a 900-pound (408-kilogram) Swarovski star before a televised lighting ceremony on Dec. 2.It will be will be trucked to New York City to usher in the holiday season (AP Content Services for Tishman)The display will remain on view until Jan. 9, after which the tree will be milled into lumber for the housing nonprofit Habitat for Humanity.The tradition dates back to 1931, when construction crews building Rockefeller Center put up a small Christmas tree with handmade garlands to raise spirits during the Great Depression. A crane hoisted the tree onto a flatbed truck to begin its 200-mile (322 kilometer) trip (AP Content Services for Tishman)The balsam fir was comparatively modest, standing at 20-foot-tall (6 meters). It was decorated with handmade garlands made by the worker's families. The first formal lighting ceremony took place in 1933.Last year’s tree, an 11-ton Norway spruce, was 75 feet tall (23 meters) and came from East Greenbush, an Albany suburb located about 150 miles (240 kilometers) north of Manhattan.It will stand over the famous skating rink at Rockefeller Plaza (AP Content Services for Tishman)Scores of people turned up to see it be loaded onto a 100-foot-long trailer en route to 30 Rockefeller Plaza.