If you haven’t bought your Christmas tree yet this year, cheer up! Prices are about the same as in 2023.
Growers did not expect wholesale price increases, according to an annual survey by the Howell, Michigan-based Real Christmas Tree Committee, which is operated by growers and importers for an annual fee. .
“It’s a similar situation to last year,” Jill Sidebottom, a spokeswoman for the National Christmas Tree Association, a trade group that advocates for the tree industry, told CBS MoneyWatch. “We are keeping prices unchanged,” he said.
For consumers, the average price of a Christmas tree this holiday season will be about $80, but by 2023 it will be $75, consistent with last year’s numbers, the group said.
“Since COVID-19, thankfully demand has increased so much that I am grateful that families are still putting up real trees. The alternative is plastic, which is not good for the environment. ” said Lisa Angevine Bergs, owner of Angevine Farms in Warren. , executive director of the Connecticut Christmas Tree Growers, told CBS MoneyWatch.
“The closer you get to the city, the more expensive it is,” she says.
Christmas tree prices have increased over the past 15 years as supply decreases.
“The original supply crunch dates back to 2008, when there was an oversupply and growers stopped many plantings,” Sidebottom said, noting that it can take up to 10 years to grow a single tree. Extreme weather events, including the 2021 heat dome, also killed many trees in the Pacific Northwest, she added.
Christmas trees are grown in every state in the United States, with Oregon, North Carolina, and Michigan producing the most. Trees are also imported from Canada, and species such as Douglas fir are imported from British Columbia.
Drought has hit parts of the country in recent months, wildfires have broken out in parts of the East Coast, and tree farmers are losing sleep because roots that aren’t properly hydrated in the fall may not survive. There is a possibility that you will spend the night.
“We were very worried this year that it would affect the trees. Thankfully, we haven’t seen any problems,” Angevine Bergs said. “We started cutting down some trees early to see what was going on, but in November we started to realize that this year’s trees were not affected.Taller trees have deeper roots. .”
The 8-foot tree, now a Christmas holiday standard, typically takes about eight years to grow. For example, white pines grow quickly, and white fir and spruce trees grow even longer.
“With about a foot of growth per year, you’re going to have a lot of money to spare for a long time,” Sidebottom said. He talked about his investment.
As with the holiday shopping season, Americans have been moving up the time to buy their Christmas trees. Last year, one-third of Americans bought a Christmas tree the week after Thanksgiving, and an additional 33% bought one in December, according to a poll of 1,499 adults conducted last August and September. I bought it in a week.
An additional 16% purchased a tree during the second week of December. 14% owned a tree before Thanksgiving. According to the survey, it was 3% in the third week of December and only 1% on Christmas Eve.
“The trend right now is that it’s happening earlier, even before Thanksgiving,” Angevine Bergs said.
Over the past few decades, “we’ve never sold a tree before Thanksgiving,” said the nearly 50-acre farm that’s been family-owned and operated for 156 years and has been selling Christmas trees since 1960. Angevine Berg said. “When I was a kid, we were always busy on Christmas Eve. And now we’re not always open, many farms are sold out early, and some farms are already sold out and closed. There are many.”
