The countdown is nearly over: the world’s most famous Christmas tree is about to arrive at Rockefeller Center in New York. On Thursday, November 5, a crane and a crew of workers cut down a 76-foot-tall Norway spruce, 50 feet wide and weighing about 11 tons, in West Edmeston, a hamlet of 1,300 people in Central New York. From there, the massive tree was hauled to America’s biggest city, and today, after a journey of about 200 miles, it will roll into Rockefeller Plaza in front of the crowd gathered to welcome it.
This isn’t just any tree, and it wasn’t cut from a forest: it was planted more than fifty years ago by a family man who died on Christmas night ten years ago. And behind its arrival is a logistics operation few people know about, made up of custom trailers, police escorts, steel spikes, and cables anchored to skyscrapers. Here’s everything we know about the 2026 tree and its journey to Manhattan.
The 2026 Tree by the Numbers
At 76 feet, this year’s tree is slightly taller than the 2025 tree (75 feet) and noticeably wider: 50 feet across versus 45. Here are the fast facts.
| Feature | 2026 Tree |
|---|---|
| Species | Norway spruce (Picea abies) |
| Origin | West Edmeston, New York |
| Height | 76 feet |
| Width | 50 feet |
| Weight | About 11 tons |
| Estimated age | About 75 years |
| Donor | Rebecca Decker |
| Selected by | Erik Pauzé, Rockefeller Center head gardener |
| Distance traveled | About 200 miles |
| Lights | More than 50,000 multicolored LEDs on about 5 miles of wire |
| Tree topper | Swarovski star designed by Daniel Libeskind, about 900 pounds |
From Cutting to Decorating: How the Tree Is Prepared
The work begins months before the tree is cut down, while the spruce is still standing in the donor’s yard. Rockefeller Center head gardener Erik Pauzé personally oversees every stage.
- Care and watering. Pauzé regularly visits the property to feed and water the tree. During the hot summer of 2025, for example, he drove once a week to East Greenbush, where the 2025 tree stood, with 800 to 1,000 gallons of water and compost tea.
- Measurements and anchor points. Workers climb the tree several times to take measurements and pinpoint the spots on the trunk where the support cables will be attached in Manhattan. At this stage, bracing is installed on the trunk to serve as attachment points.
- Wildlife check. During the climbs, crews make sure no animals are living among the branches. Rocky, the tiny owl found in the 2020 tree after its trip to Manhattan, is proof that the check isn’t foolproof.
- Tying the branches. Over about six days leading up to the cut, the branches are tied up and bent toward the trunk with ropes, turning the tree into a compact bundle that can travel by road without breaking.
- Site setup. A day or two before the cut, the crane arrives: crews lay crane mats on the ground, put the counterweights in place, and rig the crane to the tree.
That brings us to the cut. While the crane supports the tree, workers cut through the base of the trunk with a chainsaw. The crane then lowers the spruce onto a flatbed trailer, where it’s strapped down. The custom-built telescoping trailer can carry trees up to 125 feet tall. The real limit, though, is Manhattan: the streets around Rockefeller Center are so narrow that the tree can’t be taller than 100 feet.
Rockefeller Center banners are then hung on both sides of the tree, and the convoy sets off. The trip takes two days: it’s about 200 miles, normally less than a four-hour drive, but with 11 tons of spruce on the trailer, everything slows down. The truck travels with a police escort, and some roads are closed along the way. Pauzé doesn’t follow the convoy from a distance: he rides in the truck’s passenger seat as the trip’s lead. The route changes every year depending on where the tree comes from and on any construction along the way: it can enter the city via the George Washington Bridge, the Mario M. Cuomo Bridge (formerly the Tappan Zee), or I-95 from Connecticut. The final approach is the most delicate part. The truck heads south down one of Manhattan’s widest avenues, then turns onto 49th Street and pulls into Rockefeller Plaza. Given the sheer size of the load, it’s no easy feat.
Putting up the tree is essentially the cut in reverse, and it happens in public on arrival day. Here are the steps, as Pauzé described them.
- Horizontal lift. A crane lifts the tree off the trailer and holds it horizontally, a few feet off the ground.
- The steel spike. A hole is drilled into the base of the trunk and a large steel spike is inserted. People who have watched the process in past years estimate it at about 2 feet long.
- Raising it upright. The crane slowly brings the tree to a vertical position. Workers cut many of the ropes binding the branches, which begin to open back up.
- Setting it in the stand. Workers guide the spike into the center of the tree stand, where it locks onto angle iron that keeps the tree from swaying.
- The four cables. At mid-height, the tree is anchored with four guy wires, attached to the bracing installed on the trunk months earlier. According to people who have watched the installation, two are fastened to 30 Rock and two on the far side of the ice rink. As the tree turns into position, the cables are already exactly where they need to be.
- Final adjustment. The tension on the cables is adjusted until the tree stands perfectly straight.
Once it’s in place, the spruce is thirsty: in its first days it takes up about 90 gallons of water, an amount that drops week by week. One of the Rockefeller Center gardeners waters it with an ordinary garden hose.
Three Weeks of Setup: Scaffolding, Lights, and Star
Twenty-five days pass between the tree’s arrival and the lighting ceremony: that’s how long it takes to put up the scaffolding, lights, and star. From November 7 to December 2, the tree stays wrapped in multilevel scaffolding so crews can work at every level, and that’s how you’ll see it from Rockefeller Plaza until lighting night. Not every branch you see grew on that tree, either: crews add plenty of “camouflage” branches to hide cables and wires and make the tree look full and even.
More than 50,000 multicolored LEDs are wrapped around the tree, connected by about 5 miles of wire. A little-known fact: the lights aren’t reused from year to year but are brand-new each time. In recent years, some bulbs from the previous tree have been turned into ornaments for the following season. The lights run on a timer controlled from a panel in Rockefeller Center’s sub-basement. Since the switch to LEDs in 2007, energy use has dropped from 3,510 to 1,297 kWh per day.
The Swarovski star doesn’t actually rest on the tree, which couldn’t support its 900 pounds. A crane lowers a steel pipe into the center of the tree, and workers secure it to the trunk with cribbing. The crane then lifts the star and sets it into the pipe. When the season ends, the star and the Channel Gardens angels go back to a climate-controlled warehouse until the next year.
The Moving Story Behind the Tree
The 2026 tree was planted around 1970 by Carl Camenga, a local contractor, in front of the house he had just built himself in West Edmeston. The hamlet sits along the Unadilla River, straddling Madison and Otsego counties, about 28 miles south of Utica and a half-hour drive from Cooperstown, home of the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Carl planted the spruce together with his son Wade, who remembers bringing it home and putting it in the ground with his father. The four Camenga children (Wade, Lash, Gloria, and Alesia) grew up in that house along State Route 8 and watched the tree grow up alongside them, until it became a landmark on the property.
One detail makes the story even more touching. Carl died on Christmas night in 2016, and Christmas was his favorite holiday: this year marks ten years since his passing. His children said their father, who spent his life building homes, would have been happy to know the wood from his tree will help build homes for families in need through Habitat for Humanity. That’s where every Rockefeller Center tree goes once the holiday season is over.
Meet the Tree Day: The November 7 Welcome Celebration
Today, Saturday, November 7, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., Rockefeller Center is hosting a free celebration to welcome the tree. It’s the second year of an event launched in 2025, designed especially for families.
This year’s program is a Holiday Workshop presented by the Care Bears and FAO Schwarz, the iconic toy store located right at Rockefeller Center. Here’s what’s on tap:
- meet-and-greets and photos with six Care Bears characters;
- holiday letter-writing;
- festive photo ops;
- the Care-A-Lot Craft Corner, for making handmade keepsakes to take home;
- The Caring Tree, where you can leave a wish or pledge an act of kindness.
Admission is free and first-come, first-served.
The tree won’t be lit until December 2, during the traditional ceremony that runs from 7 to 10 p.m. In the meantime, you can skate beneath the tree at The Rink.
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