Workers on Tuesday are preparing to cut down a tree in New Jersey that will become the Christmas tree in New York's Rockefeller Center.

2011 Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree Lighting
2011 Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree lighting (Jason Kempin/Getty Images)
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The 80-foot Norway spruce weighs 10 tons and is 50 feet in diameter. It has been growing on the Mount Olive property owned by Joseph Balku in Morris County.

The tree will be loaded on a flatbed truck and erected at Rockefeller Center on Wednesday. Workers will string 45,000 lights on the branches.

The 80th Christmas tree lighting will take place on Nov. 28.
(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)

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