Cost of hassle-free Christmas trees
There are few Christmas traditions as enchanting for children as heading out to find a Christmas tree. But for parents the experience can be hot, bothering, and decidedly prickly.
And then, when Christmas is over, there’s the job of disposing of the browning tree.
But for the lazy, the timepressed, the physically challenged, or those willing to pay the price to make Christmas easy, end-to-end Christmas tree services exist.
If you want a real Christmas tree, you can get one delivered, and hauled away, but it may more than double the cost.
Getting a delivery from Auckland’s wonderful Misa Christmas Tree Farm, which remains a fixture in Mount Eden despite crazy land prices, adds $50 to the price.
Misa has been selling growing Christmas trees on the land, now estimated to be worth about $7 million, for 75 years.
Buy a $50 small (1.8-metre) tree, and delivery takes the price to $100. Buy a medium (2.1m) tree and it goes from $60 to $110.
The cost of the trees from Misa has gone up $5 a year in each of the past two years.
The Christmas tree farm used to charge customers $35 to haul away trees once they were no longer wanted. It now steers people to a business that does a kerbside pick-up for $20, though if you want them to come into the lounge, take the tree off its stand, sweep up, and cart it all away, the cost is $40.
That makes a price tag of $110 to $150 for getting your medium-sized tree delivered and hauled away afterwards.
Some people go further and hire people to do the decorating for them. There’s a range of reasons why they do this.
Julia Fletcher from Wellington’s Christmas Treesy Peasy supplies artificial Christmas trees to people’s homes decorated to themes including ‘‘strawberries & icecream’’, ‘‘Kiwiana kitsch’’ and ‘‘off to the beach’’.
‘‘Some people don’t want to have the same decorations year after year,’’ Fletcher said. ‘‘Sometimes it is just a matter of having disposable income, and wanting something that is professional and not all different colours.’’
These were wealthy folks who wanted something that’s coordinated and beautiful, she said.
‘‘We put up one for a home in Paremata with really great big windows looking out over the harbour, so we did them a beach theme,’’ Fletcher said.
Others hired trees for elderly relatives who can’t put trees up themselves, she said.
The most common size of tree the business put into homes was 2.4m, which would cost about $660 for the Christmas hire period.
There is a cheaper way to take the DIY out of getting, installing, decorating, and hauling away your tree this year: Pay a teenager with a driver’s licence to do it for you.
Or, if there’s one in the house, ask them to supply their labour as part of their contribution to the household.