Rockefeller Center getting Yule tree from western N.J.

HAMILTON, N.J. - Christmas at New York's Rockfeller Center will feature a tree from western New Jersey that its owners call a "miracle."

The 72-foot-tall, eight-ton Norway spruce was grown on the grounds of Tree King, a Hamilton, Mercer County, nursery owned by the Varanyak family. It will be erected over the ice rink today.

Bill Varanyak has said that the spruce was planted in 1931 after his parents used it as their first Christmas tree. He calls it "the miracle tree" because his late mother always said it would one day be displayed at Rockefeller Center.

While the first official Rockefeller tree lighting was in 1933, the first Christmas tree there was put up two years earlier by workers building the complex during the Depression.      - AP