Trent Preszler

Well, a lot of it's based on personal taste.

Some of the differences are in the aroma.

Balsam fir are famous for having that piney scent that it's hard to describe any other way than saying it smells like a Christmas tree.

I love that smell.

Oh, I love that smell too.

And it's so recognizable.

You know, there are very few smells that you can just say, oh, yeah, smells like a Christmas tree.

You know, you think of like, well, a rose smells like a rose.

And, you know, you can think of a few things like that where you just describe the smell with the one word that is the thing, right?

A rose smells like a rose and a Christmas tree smells like a Christmas tree.

But I couldn't describe to you what that smell is.

Like, is it resinous or spicy or earthy or woodsy?

I don't really know.

I can't say, and I'm sure an organic chemist could probably go through the whole list of compounds that make it smell like that, but a Christmas tree is just a Christmas tree.

Yes.

Well, the Rockefeller Center tree tradition really began during the Great Depression.

And there were workers kind of constructing all the buildings around what is now Rockefeller Center, iron workers and steel workers, and very down on their luck.

And they decided to bring in an evergreen.

It was a 20 foot tall fir.

They brought it in, they decorated it with kind of remnants of their lunch.