Tree farms sure to get busier as Christmas approaches
By Diego Flammini, Farms.com
The Christmas tree is the centerpiece of any home’s decorations during the holidays. With the lights, ornaments and gifts perfectly placed around the tree, it can brighten up a room and allow the spirit of the holiday season to shine through.
In the United States, there are plenty of tree farms welcoming families to pick out the perfect Christmas tree.
According to the National Christmas Tree Association:
- Close to 30 million real Christmas trees are purchased each year
- Farmers have planted about 350 million Christmas trees across the country
- There are around 15,000 tree farms in the US, occupying close to 350,000 acres and employing about 100,000 people
- In 2014, more than 26 million real trees were bought, totaling a retail value of $1.04 billion
- 28% of people who bought real trees in 2014 did so from retail stores, 26% purchased them from farms
- The top Christmas tree producing states are Oregon, North Carolina, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Washington
When it comes to Christmas trees in Canada:
- Farm cash receipts in 2014 for Christmas trees was $64.4 million, up from $55.3 million in 2013
- In 2011, Christmas trees were grown on 2,381 farms, occupying 22 hectares
- Canada exported more than 1.5 million trees to the rest of the world (excluding United States) in 2014, worth $32.6 million
- Canada exported about 1.4 million Christmas trees to the United States in 2014, worth $5.2 million
- Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario and Saskatchewan rank as Canada’s top five Christmas tree producing provinces.
Okay, now that you’ve decided to get a real tree from one of the local farms in your area, the next question is what type of tree to get. Here are some characteristics about three commonly-used trees:
The white pine is the biggest pine tree in the United States. Its needles are soft, flexible, are blue/green in color and can be up to 5 inches long.
Douglas firs are one of the most popular choices for Christmas trees. The tree has soft needles that can be 1 ½ inches in length and emits a sweet aroma.
Balsam firs are known to last well beyond Christmas and make the house smell wonderful the entire time. Needles can be as long as 1 ½ inches.
Join the conversation and tell us about your traditions when picking out a family Christmas tree. Is it a simple process, or do you take more of the Clark Griswold approach?