When the recession hit and families sacrificed fringe items, Christmas tree sales dropped slightly across the country. Now Christmas tree sales are back up, and some tree farmers are selling out stock earlier than expected.
"Last year, people didn't really start buying until the second week of Christmas. But this year, even last weekend and the first week right after Thanksgiving, people were in the mood to buy and take home a tree. It's great," Frank Asher, owner of Old City Green in Washington, D.C., told My Fox D.C.
Asher said business has been great compared to the last two years. And though the retail cost of Christmas trees has gone up slightly, he -- like tree farmers in Central New York -- hasn't raised prices.
First-time tree stand owner John Cartwright wasn't sure what to expect when he opened up his Texas tree shop the day before Thanksgiving, he told the Denton Record-Chronicle. While most Christmas tree sellers cite the second weekend in December as the busiest week, Cartwright said his trees are flying from the lot. He expects to have sold all of them by Dec. 22.
California tree seller Raymond Anderson attributes the increase of real tree sales not only to a better economy, but to a generation of new tree buyers who pine for traditional holiday cheer. "We're getting a whole new generation of people coming in who want the smell of a fresh tree in their house," Anderson told the San Francisco Chronicle.
According to the National Christmas Tree Association, the real trees outsell fakes in a big way. Last year, 28.2 million live trees were sold across the nation, compared to just 11.7 million artificial trees, but that could be attributed to the fact that fans of the fakes aren't buying a new tree each year.
Haven't purchased your tree yet? There's still time. The Christmas Tree Farmers Association of New York has a list of tree sellers and an interactive map that shows tree farms in Central New York.