Members of the DeFazio family — Luba, Val and their daughter, Lara — watch as a crane lifts the 28-year-old Colorado blue spruce from their front yard on Tower Hill Avenue in Red Bank yesterday. (Click pix to enlarge)

The DeFazios donated the tree for the annual holiday display that kicks off Friday night with a tree-lighting at the Dublin House on Monmouth Street and concert by Holiday Express around the corner on Broad.

Five-year-old R.J. Hendra, top left, came from Eatontown with his father, Roy, to watch the removal of the tree. That’s Steve Garcia, the Tree Man of Fair Haven, lost amid the pine needles as he attaches the tree to a crane at upper right. Afterward, Garcia embraces Luba DeFazio.

“It’s a little sad today, but we hope Red Bank enjoys it,” Luba said of the tree, which she and her husband planted in December, 1980 for the first Christmas of their older daughter, Marissa.

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