Philly’s 55-foot ‘holiday tree’ might be from New York, but the man who grew it loves the Phillies

The concolor fir was planted in the Finger Lakes region of New York about 70 years ago, right around when the Philadelphia Athletics baseball team left town.

Over the decades, it grew taller than Wilt Chamberlain, taller than the goalposts at Lincoln Financial Field, and taller than the Washington Monument at Eakins Oval. Finally felled at Yule Tree Farms recently in Hornell, N.Y., Philly’s official “Holiday Tree” stood 55 feet tall.

“This is a tree my grandfather planted,” farm owner Dan Stutzman said Wednesday.

While Pennsylvania is one of the nation’s largest suppliers of real Christmas trees — approximately one million are grown and sold here, annually — Stutzman said those are “house trees.” Philadelphia’s Christmas tree is anywhere from 65 to 70 years old, he said, and there are few farms in the country that grow trees that large.

“I grow trees that are taller than houses,” Stutzman said.

Philly’s tree arrived Wednesday for a press conference where officials announced this year’s holiday festivities. It will be decorated and prepped over the coming weeks for an official tree-lighting ceremony on Nov. 30.

Stutzman lives in New York but does have Pennsylvania Dutch roots.

“The Lancaster area to be exact,” he said.

Even better, he roots for the Phillies in a world of New York Yankee fandom.

“I’m a die hard. I wish you guys would have won,” he said. “I like Jalen Hurts, too.”

This is not the first year Stutzman has supplied a Christmas tree for Philadelphia. He’s also supplied trees to the Museum of Art and a host of other municipalities, along with trees for commercial landscaping projects and golf courses. He declined to say how much he charges per tree, and the city said costs are covered by sponsors and partners. Philly’s Welcome America Inc. and Proof Productions, a South Jersey-based custom design and fabrication shop, determine which trees are viable from an engineering and safety standpoint and sometimes scout future firs, two to three years in advance.

The tree, also known as a white fir, is checked thoroughly for critters like squirrels or birds, even turkeys, by workers on a crane. Once it’s cut, Stutzman said the tree never touches the ground. It’s loaded on a flatbed for the 300-mile journey south, passing through Binghamton, the Poconos, and the Lehigh Valley before it surely adds to the traffic on the Schuylkill Expressway.

Stutzman said the tree is given some additives before it’s cut, but once it hits the road, he’s no longer involved. That’s where Welcome America Inc. and Proof Productions take over. The company, which built the stage displays for the Eagles Super Bowl Parade in 2018, builds the tree’s steel base, with help from designer David Korins. It features Philadelphia neighborhoods, including Chinatown and Fishtown, along with the city skyline and landmarks like Independence Hall and the Benjamin Franklin Bridge.

Standing up a Christmas tree is complicated in the living room, but with 18,000 pounds of concrete ballast at its base, the city’s tree isn’t going anywhere.

“We believe it’s the largest, nontethered tree in the country,” said Steve McEntee, Proof Productions’ owner.

According to Welcome America the tree will feature 5,000 lights once it’s fully decorated after Thanksgiving and will be taken down after Jan. 1. The Philadelphia Fire Department is responsible for watering the tree and will do that for the first time Thursday morning.

The concolor fir will be recycled by Philly’s Department of Parks & Recreation after the holidays, and Stutzman, in New York, said the trees aren’t known for making tables and chairs.

“You can mulch it up, though,” he said. “That’s gonna be a lot of mulch.”