Every year after lighting the streets of Manhattan through the holiday season, the Rockefeller Christmas tree departs on the next leg of its journey as repurposed lumber — this year, it’s headed back to the Berkshires.
The lumber from the Norway Spruce, which came from West Stockbridge, will be donated to Central Berkshire Habitat for Humanity. The nonprofit will use the lumber for the first stair treads of their next 26 homes, which qualifying families can then purchase for an affordable price.
“[Buying a Habitat home] is the first step in a new beginning and new stability and new opportunity,” said Carolyn Valli, president of Central Berkshire Habitat. “So every time the homeowners step on that step, they can think about how they’ve made that literal transition into a new life.”
The partnership is a holiday tradition that began in 2007 when Tishman Speyer, the owner and operator of Rockefeller Center, donated the center’s Christmas tree to Habitat for Humanity for the first time.
In a full-circle moment, this year’s Rockefeller Christmas tree will retrace its path home to the Berkshires, where Central Berkshire Habitat for Humanity will build the lumber into the first stair treads of their next 26 homes, which qualifying families can then purchase for an affordable price.
Every year since, a local Habitat chapter has received the milled lumber, which is engraved with a commemorative stamp, from that year’s Christmas tree. The wood then becomes part of homes the chapters build to help first-time homebuyers access homeownership at an affordable cost.
This was the first year since 1959 that a tree from Massachusetts was selected to be the Rockefeller Christmas tree. It’s also the first time the lumber from a Rockefeller tree will be used to build homes in Massachusetts.
Before the Norway Spruce gained celebrity status as the centerpiece of New York’s Christmas season, the tree held a special place in the hearts of the Albert family in West Stockbridge.
Earl Albert planted the tree in 1967 when he and his wife, Lesley, were newlyweds. Lesley loved Christmas, and the couple used to decorate the tree before it grew beyond their reach.
In 2020, shortly after Lesley passed away, Erik Pauze, the Rockefeller Center’s head gardener, spotted the tree after staying overnight in the Berkshires in search of future Christmas trees.
“I knocked on the door and met Earl Albert. I asked if he would someday consider donating the tree to the Rockefeller Center. His answer was immediately ‘yes,’” said Pauze in an NBC News press release.
That someday came last year. The tree was cut on Nov. 7 and trucked to New York City, where it was lit in front of a crowd of spectators on Dec. 4.
For the second year in a row, Kelly Clarkson hosted the Christmas tree lighting Wednesday night. She and a host of other performers, including the Backstreet Boys, Jennifer Hudson and Coco Jones, regaled onlookers with new songs and holiday classics in the hours leading up to the tree lighting.
Earl Albert suffered from a stroke in mid-November and was still recovering at the time of the lighting. He watched the televised tree lighting from home in West Stockbridge, while his son and daughter-in-law travelled down to the city to witness the lighting firsthand.
Seeing the familiar tree in the heart of midtown had Michael Albert and his wife Shawn remembering Lesley, who watched the televised tree lighting every year with her niece.
“This is just the tip of everything that she emanated her whole life — compassion, love, acceptance,” Michael Albert told The Eagle at the lighting. “This is just a culmination of her whole life that we’re able to give the world.”
Shawn and Michael Albert, daughter-in-law and son of Earl Albert, seen during the tree-cutting Nov. 7 at Earl Albert’s West Stockbridge home.
And now, after sharing that gift with thousands of New Yorkers and holiday visitors, those same values will become part of new homes built for families in the Berkshires.
When staff at Central Berkshire Habitat learned that they would be receiving the tree, they brainstormed multiple potential uses for the lumber before settling on the stair treads, Valli said.
Because the wood of Norway spruces is more flexible and durable than other lumber, it cannot be used for load-bearing walls. But those same characteristics make it ideal for other uses: blocking, flooring, furniture and cabinetry.
In Habitat’s two-story builds, the engraved lumber will form the first tread on the staircase leading upstairs. In ranches, the lumber will be used on the first step down to the basement.
Valli said the stair will symbolize and celebrate the homeowner’s entrance into homeownership.
Once the lumber is cured and milled, it will return to the Berkshires in June or July, at which time members of the Habitat Build and Repair Corps and students from local vocational schools will learn how to craft the wood into treads for the first homes’ staircases.
“This initiative provides not only training in valuable skills but also a tangible connection to the tree’s legacy, fostering pride and empowerment within our community,” Valli said.
Valli will light the Christmas tree a final time on Saturday, before it travels to a mill in Pennsylvania, and then home to the Berkshires.