{"id":32672,"date":"2025-11-08T00:57:16","date_gmt":"2025-11-08T00:57:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/32672\/"},"modified":"2025-11-08T00:57:16","modified_gmt":"2025-11-08T00:57:16","slug":"judy-russ-donated-rockefeller-center-christmas-tree-to-honor-late-husband","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/32672\/","title":{"rendered":"Judy Russ donated Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree to honor late husband"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s the most wonder-fir time of the year!<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s massive \u2014 and New York-born \u2014 Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree<\/a> is slated to put down its roots in the Manhattan square Saturday, fulfilling a family\u2019s longtime dream of sharing its magnificence with the world.<\/p>\n

Judy Russ says the donation is an ode to her late husband Dan, who cherished the tree on their Rensselaer County farmland for years before he tragically died in 2020 at just 32 years old.<\/p>\n

Judy Russ and her son, Liam, donated their Norway spruce to be this year\u2019s Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree. Angus Mordant<\/p>\n

\u201cAs my husband has passed away, I know he would have loved to have been here for this moment,\u201d Russ told NBC correspondent Joe Fryer on \u201cToday\u201d Friday.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe always talked about it being the (Rockefeller Center) tree. It\u2019s so special that my family\u2019s tree gets to be America\u2019s, if not the world\u2019s, Christmas tree.\u201d<\/p>\n

Russ made it her mission to bring Dan\u2019s memory to the world after she brought the couple\u2019s 7-year-old son, Liam, to see last year\u2019s slightly smaller Norway spruce.<\/a><\/p>\n

That 74-foot and 11-inch tall tree hailed from West Stockbridge, Mass., and its lumber was later returned to the Bay State to be used in 42 Habitat for Humanity homes.<\/a><\/p>\n

Before Dan Russ died in 2020, he had long wanted their Norway spruce to be the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree. Russ Family<\/p>\n

Russ couldn\u2019t help but think back to the tree growing in her East Greenbush backyard \u2014 which Dan had joked needed a crane to properly decorate it for the holidays.<\/p>\n

The sprawling spruce, which Liam used as his own personal jungle gym, was planted by Dan\u2019s great-grandparents approximately 75 years ago on their historic farm, and was continuously cherished even as it was passed down to the Russes when they moved into the home in 2017.<\/p>\n

Judy Russ formally applied for their beloved tree to be the next Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree in July, and she took it a step further by using some family connections to get a picture of the spruce directly into the hands of the center\u2019s head gardener, Erik Pauze.<\/p>\n

The tree was planted by Dan\u2019s family 75 years ago on the East Greenbush property. AP<\/p>\n

It took just one personal visit to the upstate farm for Pauze to declare it the perfect choice. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think I just hallucinated, like, \u2018We need to go back because there\u2019s no way this is real, right?\u2019\u201d she told \u201cToday.\u201d<\/p>\n

Little Liam was elated, gushing, \u201cI\u2019m excited that the whole world can see it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m excited that the whole world can see it,\u201d little Liam said of the tree he had used as his personal jungle gym. Facebook\/Judy Russ<\/p>\n

The tree was cut down on Thursday and will make its grand arrival at Rockefeller Center on Saturday morning, with the annual lighting ceremony to follow on Dec. 3.<\/p>\n

The experience is bittersweet for Russ, who said the 50,000 lights on the tree will shine in the memory of her husband and Liam\u2019s father. <\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I cry at home in my living room when the tree is lit, so I\u2019m probably going to be inconsolable that day, but it\u2019s going to be great,\u201d Russ said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSpread joy, spread cheer, love one another. Think of our family, think of my husband, think of us,\u201d she added. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re just happy to share it with everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s the most wonder-fir time of the year! This year\u2019s massive \u2014 and New York-born \u2014 Rockefeller Center…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32673,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[12565,12879,57,9,197,56,63,65,64,12566,11447,817,58],"class_list":["post-32672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-christmas","tag-christmas-in-rockefeller-center","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city-life","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-rockefeller-center","tag-trees","tag-upstate-new-york","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32672\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}