Every morning, Felicia Hanna grabs her coat from the closet and she finds herself face to face, reminding her that the house holds more holiday spirit than most.
The Elkton, Maryland home was built by cutting timber from a former Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, processed into boards and given to charity groups after delighting Manhattan revelries during the 2021 urletide season.
“It's so special. It's not just Christmas trees anymore,” Hannah told the Post.
“We saw the tree on TV in New York City and now we have it in our home forever.”
Every year since 2007, Rockefeller Center has donated the tree to a residential organization, crushing its wood so that it can be used to help at least one family build a new home.
Hannah's home was marked with the trees being returned to their original community for the first time, marking a new lease of life.
The 79-foot tall giant had grown into a town of Devon and Julie Price's property until Rockefeller Center head gardener Eric Pose knocked in 2021.
The couple discussed whether to let go of the tree, which had grown for 30 years when they lived in the house, but the tree is estimated to be near 90 years old. In the end, they decided that the opportunity was too big to escape.
At about the same time the vast giant was decorated with 50,000 lights and celebrated by Harry Connick Jr. and the Rockets, Hannah had applied for a housing organization.
As destined, Hannah and her three young children were chosen. And they put up the floor to discover that the trees they saw on TV would soon constitute a future home.
“It felt like I had won a lottery,” recalls Hanna, a pharmacy technician.
The process was long – after Rockefeller's Christmas tree was removed from the busy Big Apple hotspot, it was processed with a dry ki and chopped into a 48 2″ x6″ x8' board – each branded with the word “Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree 2021”.
Ironically, making Spruce a fantastic Christmas tree structurally weakened it. The branches spanning 46 feet in diameter left plenty of knots in the tree, so the boards were primarily used to support the shelves in the closet.
Hannah's kids – Mia, 14, Nicholas, 9, Kash, 7 – excitedly flaunt their unique branding when they have friends, but what makes the house really special is the way the community helped it bring together.
Devon Price herself helped students at Cecil County Technical School (where Julie Price, a local vocational school once worked as an administrator) hammer the planks into place after they built the structure as a prefabricated home.
“They've always said that communities are part of their habitat and can't be done without volunteers. Honestly, volunteers make that happen and literally have trees from the community in my house now on trees from Elkton. Just wow,” Hanna said.
That moment still remains special to Price and his family. Three years after his spruce attracted national attention, he still marvels at the house he helped build.
“It always looks like that when I drive. I always look at it… and if [a friend] Price, 63, told the Post.
Luckily, each price was allowed to pay a deed of charity. The retired energy company services director took home one of the brand's wood in the unique branding of “Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree 2021.”
“It's special to have something special for New York City and everyone else,” Price explained.
“And not only did it go to landfills, burned out, or gained mulch status, but it was actually pretty cool to have it in a few other homes, and it's pretty cool to see it become useful for a clean display in the centre for so long. It's so special.”
