Rockefeller Christmas Tree Makes its Way From Mahopac to NYC

The 78th annual Christmas tree at the Rockefeller Center was donated from a family right here in the area. 

Peter Acton, from Mahopac, is a veteran New York City firefighter in the Bronx. He donated his 75-year-old tree as this year's Rockefeller Center Christmas tree. 

He grew up in Mahopac, and eventually settled there with his wife, Stephanie. Their house is surrounded by 15 varieties of trees, including maple trees, from which the family has made their own maple syrup.

"Over the years, people would say to us that the tree belonged at Rockefeller Center, but we never really paid much attention," Acton said. "Even now, my wife is disbelieving that our tree is really going to be this year's Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree."

The team scouting for the Rockefeller Center tree first spotted it while traveling in the area on September 11. The Acton's giant Norway Spruce – its height, grandeur, and symmetry - immediately impressed the Center's head gardner, a spokesperson said. 

The tree is 74 feet tall, 40 feet wide, and weighs 12 tons. It will make its official way into the Rockefeller Center on Friday where it will be raised. The annual tree lighting will take place on Nov. 30.

The tradition became official in 1933. It started during the Great Depression, when a band of construction workers decorated a 20-foot Balsam Fir at the plaza. Today, the trees are looped with LEDs and have long been an iconic image of New York during the holidays.

This year, the tree will be lit with 30,000 multi-colored, LEDs on five miles of wire, and 25,000 crystals and one million facets. Hundreds of solar panels atop one of the Rockefeller Center buildings will help power the lights. The Swarovski star will feature 720 energy-efficient LED bulbs. 

The tree was cut down in Mahopac today and it began its journey on a 115-foot long flatbed truck. It passed through Yorktown at approximately 2 p.m. Police were leading the tree as it stopped every so often to make sure it is placed securely. 

While Peter Acton said it would be hard to let the tree go, he takes comfort in two things: the fact that his son has the memory of climbing the tree, and also that the tree is going to New York City, where it will be seen and appreciated by millions of people.

"If you had to cut down your tree and give it to any place, New York City is the place you'd want it to be," he said.

Siobhan Fitzpatrick, from Mahopac was playing bowling at Jefferson Valley Bowl, on Hill Boulevard, with her five children when the tree passed by. Many others came out of the bowling alley and looked with awe as they took pictures of the tree.

"I think it was really cool," her son Brockton, 7, said. 

Fitzpatrick said she and her kids went to Mahopac to see the tree when they were wrapping it to take it down to the city. 

And does the sight of the Christmas tree put them in the mood for the holidays?

"We were in the mood after the last Halloween candy was eaten," she said. 

In addition, this year Fitzpatrick is part of the roller blading clowns who lead the Macy's Thanksgiving parade. She said her family goes down to the city every year and does all things Christmas. 

After Nov. 30, spectators could view the Christmas tree each day from 5:30 am. - 11:30 p.m.; all day on Christmas; and from 5:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. on New Year's Eve. The last day to view the tree is January 7, 2011.