NEW YORK-- Picking a Christmas tree takes most people a few minutes, or a couple of hours if they head for the woods. Dave Murbach needs 11 months. Almost every day of every year, Murbach's thoughts turn to vision of a perfectly shaped evergreen tree that will take everyone's breath away. Murbach is the man responsible for finding the towering tree that makes more attractive Manhattan's Rockefeller Center each Christmas season. "I'm always looking for a tree," the center's chief gardener says. "I look for it even when I go to the beach in the summer. It' s like a homework assignment hanging over your head." And if he gets it wrong, there's nothing hiding it. "Every day it's up, 400,000 people go by, and 2.5 million people watch the lighting celebration on television,"he says. This year's tree, a 74-foot Nomy spruce   from Richfield, Ohio, flown to New York on the world's largest cargo plane, was lighted on December 2. The arrival of the tree leads in the Christmas season in New York -- a tradition dating back to 1931, when the workers building Rockefeller Center put up a small tree with ornaments  . The search for the next year's tree starts soon after the old tree is chopped up for wood chips and horse-jumping logs. Murbach has three standards: The tree must be at least 65 feet high, at least 35 feet across and leaves dense   enough not to see through. That's not as simple as it sounds. Though forests are full of evergreens, few get enough sunlight or space to fill out. And branches in snow regions often break under the weight, making trees unbalanced. Back at the office, he sorts through hundreds of letters from people offering their trees, many addressed simply to "Mr. Christmas Tree Man." Though there was occasional anxiety attack and sleepless night, Murbach knows the effect the tree has on people: "It's for bringing people together, attempting to bring together people you love. That's what I hope it sets off."  But Murbach says he's always too worn out to celebrate Christmas. Why does Murbach take his job seriously?
Because he wants everyone to be happy with his choice. Because he hopes to make everybody unable to breathe. Because he enjoys showing off. Because he wishes to attract people's attention to himself.