House of Cesidio Perruzza

San Donato Val di Comino boasts a unique Christmas history related to the iconic Rockefeller Center Christmas tree in New York City.

Christmas Eve 1931: Cesidio Perruzza is a Sandonatese emigrant to New York who stands, along with about fifty workers, in Midtown Manhattan to collect his weekly paycheck from Rockefeller. For the American entrepreneur they level the land on which Rockefeller Center will be built. The workers stand in line and occasionally glance at the Christmas tree they have decorated on Cesidio's instructions: the branches carry the light weight of wreaths, streamers and even chewing gum wrappers and aluminum wires taken from the detonators used to clear the ground.
The tree stood alone from a layer of rock near the eastern end of the central block of the construction site. The first to see it was Cesidio, his idea to take it and decorate it. With him to which are two other Sandonans: Loreto Perruzza and Donato Ventura. Today the tradition of the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree continues and is alive, attracting a million visitors each year including many music and entertainment stars. A Sandonatese is credited with starting it.

"Lost in history are the origins of the tree made by men who worked in construction, most of them Italian immigrants, happy with a job during the Depression. "My grandfather picked up a tree and took it there," explained Steve Elling, of Great Barrington, Mass. His grandfather was Cesidio Perruzza, born in 1880 in San Donato Val di Comino, Italy. He finished the third grade when he arrived in the United States in 1901 and found work, like many of his countrymen, in excavation. It was a dangerous and dirty business, often carried out under the fist of Irish contractors who had crossed the Atlantic a few decades before the Italians, as Paul Moses writes in An unlikely union: the story of the love and hate of the Irish and Italians in New York."

Visit San Donato Val di Comino to discover the magic of its Christmas traditions and the inspiring story of Cesidio Perruzza. As you stroll through its picturesque squares, you can reflect on the courage and sacrifices of our ancestors while celebrating the unique connection between this charming village and one of the world's greatest cities.