• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, 4 hours ago

Another majestic evergreen cut down in the prime of life will take center stage at Rockefeller Center on Wednesday for NBC’s annual tree-lighting spectacular.

Though the stars will sing and the Radio City Rockettes will kick up their heels in perfect unison, the real star of “Christmas In Rockefeller Center” Wednesday night will be a regal Norway spruce from upstate New York.

This magnificent specimen of a spruce -- said to be 75 feet tall and 45 feet wide (too wide for hugging), and weighing in at an estimated 11 tons -- could not escape the power saws that cruelly severed it from its root system so that Christmas-season tourists can gawk at it from now until the middle of January. 

No traditional Viking funeral for this Norway spruce is planned for the live telecast. Instead, this most dignified of trees will be festooned with more than 50,000 multi-colored LED lights and topped with a three-dimensional star designed and produced by the Austrian crystal and glass manufacturer Swarovski.

The press release does not reveal the age of this magnificent tree, but it does list the notable names who will cavort in front of it and beneath it.

The host of the show is the tireless Reba McEntire, 70, star of the NBC saloon sitcom “Happy’s Place.”

Entertainment will be provided by Marc Anthony, Halle Bailey, Michael Bublé, Kristin Chenoweth, Icelandic singer Laufey, New Edition, Brad Paisley, Carly Pearce, Gwen Stefani and the Rockettes, who are celebrating their 100th anniversary this year.

As if all of these notable names are not enough, “Today” show stars Savannah Guthrie, Craig Melvin and Al Roker will be on hand for the lighting of the tree’s 50,000 lights.

The annual Rockefeller Center Christmas tree is a tradition that goes back 92 years to 1933. This means 92 trees have given their lives for this time-honored ritual of the season.

This year’s tree will continue to do good works even after it has done its job of bringing smiles to the faces of tens of thousands of visitors to New York next month.

As is customary, the entire tree will be milled into lumber and donated to Habitat for Humanity to build much-needed houses.

In addition, for the 17th consecutive year, NBCUniversal is partnering with the Arbor Day Foundation in support of tree-planting efforts in forests impacted by natural disasters, NBC says.

This year’s effort will result in nearly 20,000 new trees to be planted in the Apalachicola National Forest in Florida, which suffered damage from wildfires last April and Hurricane Helene in 2024.