Christmas, it’s full of wholesome, heartwarming, and sometimes corny stories that pull at the heartstrings a little more than we would like. Nevertheless, we see them every year and despite your perspective on them, they are emotionally enriching. Even if they can be a bit cheesy.
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Recently, the wholesome holiday story to grace the eyes and ears of Americans is the romance behind this year’s Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree. Which will be lit at around 10 pm EST tonight with the two-hour TV special starting at 8 pm EST. If you do decide to tune in to the Christmas tree lighting, here is some much-needed context provided by this year’s Christmas tree lighting host, Kelly Clarkson.
The Hidden Romance in The Rockefeller Tree
On The Kelly Clarkson Show, Clarkson provided viewers with the story surrounding this year’s tree, and it is something straight out of a Hallmark movie. Clarkson opened her segment by stating, “This year’s tree may have the sweetest origin story ever.” “It starts back in 1967 when newlyweds Earl and Leslie planted a young Norway Spruce outside their Massachusetts home,” she proceeded to divulge.
Clarkson went on to add that in 2020, the tree grew to a whopping 74 feet tall and that’s when Rockefeller Center’s head gardener approached the family with an offer. Subsequently, the son and daughter-in-law of the ’60s couple took to the screen to attest to the story. The son of the couple, Michael, stated, “[The Tree] is a culmination of like all my Mom’s acts of kindness and generosity” and “Tonight’s lighting is just a way for us to give back to the world.”
Following Eric’s statement, the story took a tragically yet heartwarming turn, as Clarkson divulged that Leslie had passed just two days before Rockefeller’s gardener approached the family. Furthermore, Leslie passed in the height of the pandemic so a proper funeral was not an option and Christmas tree-cutting stepped in. “So the [cutting of the tree] was it, it was just like the whole community came out for the day of the cutting” and “It was just a send-off, a great send-off,” concluded Sean, Michael’s wife.
So, if you do decide to tune in to the Rockefeller Christmas Tree lighting tonight, just know that it has been years in the making.
(Photo by ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)
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