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

Associated Press

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 journey south, arriving Nov. 9 in midtown Manhattan. It will be lit during a live TV broadcast on Dec. 4 featuring 50,000 multi-colored lights with a Swarovski star on top. Local western Massachusetts residents have flocked to the tree this week, which was planted 67 years ago in honor of the homeowner’s nieces. It is the first tree to come from Massachusetts since 1959.