A Brief History of the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree
The Great Hunt
Nowadays, finding the perfect tree is a daunting task reserved for Rockefeller Center's garden manager. But this has not always been the case. In 1956, a polite (or perhaps proud) New Hampshire man presented a 65-ft. white spruce to the state's governor, who in turn offered it to Rockefeller Center as a gift from New York's neighbor to the north. Ten years later, Canada delivered a 64-ft. white spruce in honor of its 100th birthday — the first Rockefeller Christmas tree raised out of the U.S. Today, a helicopter is used to scour New England for the perfect specimen. In 2008, the winning evergreen was a 72-ft. Norway spruce from New Jersey. Its owner, Bill Varanyak, dubbed it "the miracle tree," telling local reporters that his late mother always predicted it would one day stand at Rockefeller Center. Varanyak's parents had planted the tree in 1931, the very year the tradition began. This year, the tree hails from the Connecticut yard of a fifth-grade teacher who had personally called NBC's garden manager to offer her tree for the job.