Centre Region Tree Takes the Spotlight at Rockefeller Center

A Christmas tree with College Township roots will be in the national spotlight tonight.

‘Christmas at Rockefeller Center,’ airing beginning at 8 p.m. on NBC, will culminate with the lighting of the 75-foot Norway spruce that was selected from a property on Pikeview Road and cut down on Nov. 9 to be transported to midtown Manhattan where it arrived on Nov. 11 to become this year’s official Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree, the most famous in the world.

The festivities start at 7 p.m. in Rockefeller Plaza, between West 48th and West 51st Streets and Fifth and Sixth Avenues, with the first hour broadcast locally in New York on WNBC before switching over at 8 for the national broadcast that is annually watch by millions.

Performers will include Brett Eldredge, Jennifer Nettles, Leslie Odom Jr., Pentatonix and Gwen Stefani and The Tenors, among others. NBC ‘Today’ anchors Savannah Guthrie, Hoda Kotb and Al Roker will host.

A Swarovski crystal star, 9.5 feet in diameter, was recently placed on top of the tree and it is adorned with more than 50,000 multi-colored lights that will be lit for the first time tonight. It will then be lit from 5:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. daily and for 24 hours on Christmas.

The tree was first spotted seven years ago by Rockefeller Center head gardener Erik Pauze, who was visiting State College for a high school football game when he saw it from the road. He knocked on the door property owner Jason Perrin, who owned the home there for the past 14 years, and told him in a few years it might be ready for the starring role.

This summer Pauze thought it was time and Perrin agreed to donate it. A Penn State graduate, Perrin worked for the State College Area School District for 17 years, most recently as assistant superintendent. He recently relocated to Gettysburg to become superintendent of schools there. The tree, believed to be about 80 years old, had reached its peaked and Perrin believed sooner or later a storm would take it down.

Perrin will be in attendance for the lighting.

‘It’s fun. A lot of people are going to get to enjoy the tree and then after that it’s going to become part of someone’s home through Habitat for Humanity, which is also pretty cool,’ Perrin said. ‘It’s probably a better end than most trees have.’

The tree will remain in Rockefeller Center until Jan. 7. After it’s taken down it will be cut into lumber and donated to Habitat for Humanity for use in home building.

This is the 85th Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony, with the first held in 1933.