Chicago's 106th Christmas tree to arrive at Millennium Park Friday

CHICAGO - Millennium Park will get a stunning new attraction on Friday.

The city's Christmas tree will be put into place, traveling all the way from Elgin this year. It's a tradition that dates back to 1913.

One of your favorite sights of the season has got to be the city's grand Christmas tree. Just seeing it all lit up in Millennium Park can give even the grumpiest Grinch the warm fuzzies.

Who knew something so beautiful would begin it's journey to stardom with the sound of a chainsaw. Those are sweet sounds to the Nelson family of Elgin, donating the 55-foot Blue Spruce tree that they have enjoyed for more than 20 years.

"We're sad that it's going, because it's been around, we've been here 20 plus years, we're sad it's going but we're happy that it's going to Chicago and it's going to be used again and lots of people are going to see it,” Gene Nelson said.

This will be Chicago’s 106th Christmas tree. City archives show the earliest version in 1913 was actually several trees joined together and glistening with hundreds of multi-colored lights.

"We think it's going to be fantastic, it's going to be lit in a way that we could never do it,” Nelson said.

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This year's tree was selected from more than 40 submissions, and Nelson thought someone was pulling his leg when they won.

"It was like surreal, it's like, is somebody playing a joke?” he said.

The Nelson family has the honor of flipping the switch to magically light the tree on Friday, November 22. The free lighting ceremony takes place at 6 p.m.