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A spruce from Connecticut serves a deep-rooted tradition

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NEW YORK (CNN) -- Rob Kinnaird's family moved their Connecticut driveway four times in the past six decades to make way for the widening reach of an 88-foot tall, 45-foot wide Norway Spruce.

Now that massive tree, a centerpiece of Kinnaird's childhood, is standing in the middle of New York's Rockefeller Center. It joins a long line of trees that have served as a symbol of the holidays in the Big Apple.

"It's time for it to go out in glory," Kinnaird's wife Deborah said of the tree's new home.

In keeping with a tradition of extravagance, five miles of lights -- 25,000 7.5-watt bulbs of all colors -- will adorn the spruce's limbs. A 9-foot 25,000-crystal Swarovski weighing 550 pounds is the largest star ever to be put on a Rockefeller Center Christmas tree.

Dave Murbach, manager of the Gardens Division at Rockefeller Center, said he had been injecting liquid fertilizer -- a mixture of phosphorus, nitrogen and potassium -- in the tree's root zone since early spring.

"We do that to make sure the tree has a dark green color and more leaf growth so it looks as full as possible," he told CNN.

The lighting of the tree will be on November 29 in the televised ceremony's 51st anniversary.


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