NEW YORK — An iconic sign of Christmas arrived in New York City on Saturday as a crane hoisted an 82-foot Norway spruce into place at Rockefeller Plaza, where the 14-ton tree will be festooned with thousands of lights and topped with a star encrusted with millions of crystals.
The Christmas tree will be officially lit on Nov. 30.
The approximately 90-year-old tree was cut Thursday then lifted onto a flatbed truck for its to 200-mile trip to from Queensbury, New York, to New York City.
"We gave it with the expectation that everybody would enjoy it," said Neil Lebowitz, whose family donated the tree.
![Workers steady the 2022 Rockefeller Center Christmas tree as a crane lifts the donated tree into place on Saturday.](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/bed4497/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3147x2360+0+0/resize/880x660!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmedia.npr.org%2Fassets%2Fimg%2F2022%2F11%2F12%2Fap22316637158589-d167b2ebd868c3e362a8ccbaac14b09267c752c8.jpg)
"For me, it was just a nice tree," Lebowitz was quoted as saying by the New York Post. "Now it's a special tree. Everybody around the world can enjoy it."
The tree, whose lower branches extend 50 feet in diameter, will be aglow with 50,000 multicolored lights and topped with a 900-pound star covered in 3 million crystals.
After the holidays, the tree will be milled into lumber for donation to Habitat for Humanity, officials said.
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