Rockefeller Center Christmas tree headed to New York City

This year’s Rockefeller Center Christmas tree has been cut down and is on its way to New York City to kick off the holiday season. The 76-foot (23-meter) Norway spruce is expected to arrive Saturday from West Edmeston in upstate New York. The tree is about 75 years old, with a 50-foot (15-meter) diameter. Crews loaded it onto a flatbed truck using a crane after cutting it Thursday, starting a 200-mile (322-kilometer) trip to Rockefeller Plaza in Midtown Manhattan. The display will be wrapped with more than 50,000 energy-efficient, multicolored LED lights and topped with a 900-pound (408-kilogram) Swarovski star. It will be lit during a live broadcast on Dec. 2 and remain through Jan. 9 before being milled into lumber for Habitat for Humanity.