Rockefeller Christmas Tree lit up for final time — here’s the surprising place it will end up

Oh, Christmas Tree, you’re off to Albany.

A Brooklyn-born mom illuminated the 2025 Rockefeller Christmas Tree for the final time early Saturday morning in a small ceremony that marked the beginning of the spruce’s second life.

Domonique Williams-Abubaker is one of the lucky few who will get a slice of the massive 74-foot and 11-inch tall tree inside her new Habitat for Humanity home after it makes its journey back to the Empire State’s Capital Region this summer.

“It’s a surreal feeling. I had to shed a tear a little bit,” Williams-Abubaker, 35, told The Post as the glow of the lights lit up her tear-streaked face.

“This tree — I’m looking at it in its full form now and to know that a piece of this is going to be on my home, this is really, it’s really a surreal feeling.”

Williams-Abubaker, her husband and her 5-month-old son will close in on their Habitat for Humanity home in Albany next week, a dream the new mom previously didn’t think was in the cards.

Williams-Abubaker, originally from East New York, moved to Albany a few years ago and was gutted to realize home prices were not much more affordable than in New York City.

She began volunteering with Habitat for Humanity as a means of contributing to her new neighborhood — and soon applied to get a house of her own with the nonprofit.

Within a year — one fewer than she had hoped for — Williams-Abubaker heard the good news that she was a winning candidate.

“My friends call me the manifestation person. I made that happen. I’m closing in on my house,” the IRS taxpayer advocate service representative said.

“I can say I can afford my own home. Now I’m married, and I have a baby, and my baby can grow up in this house, and he has his own room from the start. That’s really big.”

It’s not yet clear where the Christmas tree lumber will appear in Williams-Abubaker’s home, or what form it will take, but the soon-to-be-homeowner plans for it to be a centerpiece of the house.

“I want it to be something close to me. A lot of people come from very far to see this and to know that this right here is getting ready to be in my house somewhere — I’m going to show this off,” she said.

At least seven other families in Albany will have the same honor, though Habitat for Humanity’s Capital Region hopes that there might be enough lumber to spread the holiday joy even further.

This year marks the first time the Rockefeller Christmas Tree will be sent to Albany since the center and Habitat for Humanity struck their partnership back in 2007.

It is something of a homecoming for this year’s towering spruce, which grew for 75 years on a Rensselaer County farmland before it was donated by Judy Russ and her son, Liam, in honor of her late husband, Dan — who always dreamed of the tree one day lighting up the Big Apple.

“To know that their legacy not only inspired so much joy during the holiday season, but that it also continues on in habitat communities’ homes, it’s really incredible, and I hope that the family knows that they are having a really lasting impact,” said Christine Schudde, Habitat’s capital region executive director.

She added that the 5 a.m. call to light the tree one final time was certainly worth it.

“I can’t believe how beautiful this tradition is and just how joyful it is.”

Plans are still in the early phases, but Schudde teased that the lumber might appear in shelving, cabinetry or windowsills.

But first, the tree will be sent to New Jersey, where it will be milled, dried and cleaned.