Crowds flock to tiny Massachusetts town to send off New York’s Rockefeller Christmas tree

WEST STOCKBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) — This year’s Rockefeller Center Christmas tree comes with a strong New England accent, and locals could not be more excited.

The Norway spruce that will travel to New York City hails from West Stockbridge, Massachusetts. It was scheduled to be cut down Thursday and make the roughly 140-mile (225-kilometer) journey south, arriving Nov. 9 in midtown Manhattan.

The tree will be lit during a live TV broadcast on Dec. 4, featuring 50,000 multi-colored lights with a Swarovski star on top and remain on display until mid-January.

Local residents were flocking to the tree this week, which was planted 67 years ago in honor of the homeowner’s nieces and several workers could be seen high up in the 11-ton (9.97-metric ton) tree, tying up its branches for a trip down south.

It is the first Rockefeller Center Christmas tree to come from Massachusetts since 1959.

“There’s a lot of people coming to town that are interested in this. So people are at the house taking pictures and excited about it,” said Bernie Fallon, a resident of West Stockbridge, a town of 1,400 in western Massachusetts. “The talk of the town, local gossip and conversation is quite high.”

Peter Giles Thorne, another resident, called it a “wonderful story.”

“A hometown tree makes good,” he said with a chuckle.

Among those visiting the Christmas tree were Michael and Tania Hardinger, tourists from Denmark. They flew into New York and drove up to Massachusetts, a trip that took longer than anticipated after Michael Hardinger took the wrong way.

“We call it the scenic route. So it took six hours instead of 2.5 hours,” Michael Hardinger said. “But we found it and we found the tree. And we are very happy.”

Hardinger said the trip was inspired by their love of Christmas, with the family having two and sometimes three Christmas trees in their house in Copenhagen. Both musicians, they will return to Denmark to play a few concerts before coming back New York to do some Christmas shopping and visit the tree again, this time at Rockefeller Center.

“We’re big on Christmas and the Rockefeller tree is something we must see every year,” Hardinger said. “It’s so beautiful and it’s fantastic. So to see it here alive before it’s been killed is thrilling and so much fun.”