The Cost Of Christmas Has Increased

Your 2018 Christmas tree might leave your wallet a bit thinner than usual.   That's because a national shortage of trees has caused a spike in the price of your Tannenbaum. 

The shortage mostly stems from the Great Recession in 2008 – a time when consumers curtailed their spending as a consequence of the financial crisis and tree growers responded by planting fewer trees to sell.    This is perfectly logical - to me at least.  Since a tree can take up to 10 years to mature - replenishing the trees in the pipeline can easily take a decade. 

Complicating things further are two additional factors.  Wildfires and hurricanes have resulted in inventory losses for growers and the number of Christmas tree farmers has been steadily declining.  According to ABC News, the number of licensed growers in the state of Oregon (the nation’s #1 producer of Christmas trees) has fallen from 699 in 2010 to 392 in 2017. 

You can learn more about this phenomenon here…..