Rockefeller Center 2019 Christmas Tree will come from Village of Florida

A huge pyramidal shape Norway Spruce that stands in front of 5 Cedar Street in the Village of Florida has been selected for this year’s 87th Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree lighting.

The center recently revealed on Instagram that the majestic tree will be cut down on Nov, 7 and shipped to Rockefeller Plaza, located between Fifth and Sixth Avenues in Manhattan.

Homeowner Carol Schultze declined to comment or be interviewed.

Each year, Rockefeller Center receives submissions from families in hopes the tree will bring joy to the millions who visit Rockefeller Plaza during the holiday season. And it usually selects a Norway spruce.

After being wrapped with more than 50,000 multi-colored lights and crowned with a Swarovski star, the tree will be lit during the live broadcast “Christmas in Rockefeller Center,” on Wednesday, Dec. 4.

Each year, thousands crowd the sidewalks for the event and millions watch the live broadcast. The tree will then be on display until Friday, Jan. 17.

The first Christmas tree that was erected at the Rockefeller site in 1931 was only 20 feet tall and that tree was put up by Depression-era construction workers who, on Christmas Eve, placed it on the space that would soon become the Rockefeller Center.

They decorated it that year and in 1933, a Rockefeller Center publicist organized the first official tree-lighting ceremony.

The 2019 Rockerfeller Christmas Tree is not the first Norway Spruce from Warwick to be featured in Manhattan during the holiday season. In 2005 Warwick resident Evelyn Rossi provided her 70-foot Norway Spruce outside her home on Grand Avenue to be that year’s Christmas Tree outside the New York Stock Exchange.

At that time Rossi said that she had mixed emotions about having her tree removed but she was proud of the fact that millions of people would have an opportunity to see it dressed in bright lights for the holiday season.

- Roger Gavan