If you weren’t watching closely, the first signs of the 2021 holiday season might’ve tiptoed by you. But two events, this week, proved the door is open, if only a little, for holidays far more normal than any since the pandemic began.
By David Stone
The Roosevelt Island Daily News
Is It Finally the 2021 Holiday Season in New York?
At Rockefeller Center, a controversial Christmas tree…
Yesterday, a 79 foot tall, 85 year old Norway spruce was chopped down in Elkton, Maryland. Until then, it lived a healthy life in a family’s yard, according to 6sqft. “Rockefeller Center officials look for a Norway spruce in the later years of its life that measures at least 75 feet tall and is 46 inches in diameter,” it says.
If so, they missed their mark by over a century. Norway spruce normally remain healthy for around 200 years. Their average lifespan is between 300 and 400 years.
Cutting down healthy trees, whether for living rooms or Rockefeller Center, is controversial, and nothing about this year’s tree changes that. As a sort of apology, the group pledges each year to plant many more trees as compensation.
A lighting ceremony, broadcast nationally, is on tap for December 1st. Last year, because of the pandemic, no one was allowed to observe it in person, but this year is different. Although details for NBC’s Christmas in Rockefeller Center have not been released, many, if not all, restrictions will be lifted.
A less controversial next step…
On Saturday, the 2021 holiday season gets a popular, but not as celebrated boost with the opening of the Rockefeller Center skating rink. For $20 a pop, skaters can glide by Prometheus and, once it’s up, this years Christmas tree.
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