Holiday tree will cost more green
Shortage due to recession, weather and pot has caused prices to spike
As thousands of Bay Area families pile into the car this weekend and head out to pick the perfect Christmas tree, they better brace themselves for sticker shock.
Christmas tree prices have spiked this year, in part because of a tree shortage that has its roots in the Great Recession. The recent spate of hurricanes and possibly even Christmas tree farmers pivoting to pot have also bumped up prices this year.
For several years beginning in 2007, cashstrapped families bought fewer trees, meaning Christmas tree farmers brought in less revenue and planted fewer trees. And since Christmas trees grow about a foot a year, it’s the smaller crop of recession-era trees that’s just now hitting tree lots
around the Bay Area.
“It is truly a shortage,” said Shelly Holloway, whose family runs Honey Bear Trees in San Mateo and Redwood City.
Honey Bear usually gets its trees from Oregon and Washington, but this year it was forced to look as far away as Wisconsin.
“It’s definitely more difficult to get the Noble firs — and it has raised the wholesale price for us,” she said.
All 50 states grow Christmas trees, but Oregon is the number one Christmas tree producer. And the Beaver State is facing an especially short supply this year — and that’s affected California and other West Coast tree sellers.
Honey Bear has tried to keep its prices for smaller trees in line with recent years, given that people with fewer economic resources tend to purchase those trees. But it’s had to raise prices on taller trees by about 10
percent, meaning some cost well over $100.
Tree prices have also gone up at Saint Nicholas Christmas Trees at Abbot’s Thrift, Antiques and Collectibles in Felton.
“It’s been a very hard year,” said Sarah Macy, who organizes the tree sales, which benefit St. Lawrence Academy and Valley Churches United.
Growers are charging $10 to $20 more per tree, she said, forcing her to raise prices between $5 and $15 to stay afloat.
The lingering effect of the Great Recession isn’t the only challenge for tree farmers and sellers. Macy tried to purchase Grand firs from Oregon, but the farmer had to cancel the sale because a heat wave “fried the trees,” Macy said.
Some farms were also hit by the five-year drought that ended last winter. The lack of water weakened the trees and stunted their growth.
And even when local tree sellers can find Yuletide timber to purchase, they’ve had trouble getting it here. A number of truckers as well as shipping containers used to transport trees are in the South providing aid to hurricane-ravaged parts of Texas and Louisiana, which has delayed some deliveries.
Macy was left scrambling for volunteers to help offload trees on Thanksgiving Day when a delayed shipment of trees that had been scheduled to arrive Monday finally showed up Thursday morning.
Holloway said she’s been dealing with the same issue. Trucks that used to cost her $3,000 to hire now cost $4,000, she said.
Still, said Doug Hundley, a spokesman for the Colorado-based National Christmas Tree Association, there’s nothing like picking out and decorating a real tree to foster family memories.
That sentiment might be sincere, but it’s also strategic. While Americans have been buying real Christmas trees for around 75 years, Hundley said, the artificial tree industry has taken off
in the last 25 years or so.
While 25-30 million real trees go into homes each holiday season, sales of artificial trees have risen to roughly 10 million a year. And since people use artificial trees for five or more years, Hundley said, that figure is equivalent to 50 million fewer live trees being sold.
“It’s a big deal,” he said. “They’ve come on strong.”
But, he warned, the fake trees “are going to be in landfills forever.” Real trees, on the other hand, go right back into the soil and are grown by 4,000-5,000 small family farms in the United States.
“This is not corporate farming,” he said, adding that the trees are “a laborintensive crop.”
If Christmas tree farmers let trees grow naturally, he said, they’d look nothing like what families have come to expect. So farmers must put in hours of work shearing the trees every year, holding back their vertical growth so they get thick and sturdy.
But all that work isn’t necessarily appealing to younger generations, and the number of Christmas tree farms is lower now than it was even a couple decades ago. Many Christmas tree farmers are retiring and their children aren’t always interested in continuing the family business, Hundley said.
And in Oregon, at least, they have a less labor-intensive, more lucrative alternative option: growing marijuana — an option that will soon be available to California tree farmers as well.
“It is very profitable,” Oregon tree farmer Tom Dean told ABC7 News. “Some of our neighbors are making quite a bit of money, and it’s not near the work this is.”
There aren’t any good statistics on how many Christmas tree farmers have turned to cannabis.
Hundley, though, is skeptical that the trend is real.
“I’ve not heard of that,” he said. “Christmas tree farmers are pretty much oldtimers.”