Wednesday evening, people watched and celebrated the famous Rockefeller Center tree lighting. The annual tradition began almost 80 years ago, and for many, this event marks the beginning of the Christmas season. The tree is usually a Norway Spruce, between 70 – 100 feet tall, illuminated by 30,0000 lights and approximately 500,000 people visit the tree each day. It is a magnificent site.
As much joy that this tree brings to so many each Christmas, it is uncomparable to the joy that it brings when it’s taken down. Each year, after the holidays, the Rockefeller tree is milled into lumber and donated to Habitat to build a house for a deserving family.
Just as the tree lighting marks the beginning of the Christmas season for many, it’s coming down marks the end. But for these families, the hope and love that Christmas embodies, continues.
This has inspired a beautiful story written by David Rubel in collaboration with Habitat and illustrated by Jim LeMarche.The story is called, The Carpenter’s Gift. Parts of the 2010 Rockefeller Center Christmas tree that couldn’t be turned into lumber for Habitat for Humanity have been used to make commemorative bookplates for the new children’s book.
Information gathered from http://magazine.habitat.org/stories/shade-shelter
