Pandemic driving higher demand for decorations
Stores report selling more trees, wreaths, other holiday items
Colonie Faddegon’s Nursery ordered 1,000 Christmas trees this year from its supplier. But by Tuesday, with Christmas Eve still more than two weeks away, just 100 remained, said store manager Shannon Barraclough.
In central New York, farmer Dave Hicks and his family have stayed up each night until 1 a.m. fashioning new wreaths for their farm stand, as they struggle to keep up with demand.
“We sell a tremendous amount of wreaths at our place,” Hicks, a board member of the Christmas Tree Farmers Association of New York, added Tuesday. He said some tree farms in his area have already shut down because they ’ve run out of trees.
The pandemic has forced changes in the way we celebrate the holidays. Travel is discouraged and the size of gatherings is limited. And forget getting together with relatives. “Nobody can travel much,” said Hicks.
So there’s a renewed focus on home and family. At Hewitt’s Garden Center in Glenville, real trees are outselling
artificial ones, said Patti Marx, the store’s assistant manager. Christmas wreaths, decorations and other holiday items such as poinsettias began selling earlier than normal this season and have seen strong demand.
“It’s not just trees,” said Marx. “Everybody’s decorating more.”
Customers “actually started
before Thanksgiving,” she added. “They have more time on their hands.”
At “The Christmas Guys,” in Albany, Bill Varrone, the company’s business development manager, said demand has been strong.
The company, which installs Christmas tree lights and other decorations for homes and businesses, has “gotten a mul
titude of calls” this season, he said. Why the surge in demand?
“It has a lot to do with not being able to do much throughout the year,” Varrone said.
The American Christmas Tree Association quoted a psychiatrist who said the early celebrating of Christmas this year may have mental health benefits.
“What (the studies) found is that just by celebrating holidays early, we actually improve our
mood,” Dr. Marcus De Carvalho of HPR Treatment Centers said. “It invokes good feelings from the past.”
Locally, Christmas tree prices have stayed fairly stable. Hicks said prices varied by location, with “most of our trees averaging $40 to $50.”
Hewitt’s still has an ample supply of trees, said Marx. And Faddegon’s has three greenhouses full of poinsettias and other seasonal plants, as well as decorations and artificial
greens.
A popular ornament this year at Faddegon’s is Rocky the owl, said Barraclough, in honor of the little owl that traveled from Oneonta to Manhattan in the branches of this year’s Rockefeller Center Christmas tree.
Rocky was rescued and taken to Ravensbeard Wildlife Center in Saugerties, where it was released after recuperating.