Consider The Tannenbaum

Tannenbaum is a German word that translates to fir tree.  It is pronounced tah-nuhn-boum. 

It is that time of year folks - two weeks ago already I was returning home from a Lions Club meeting and took note that one of my neighbors had their Christmas tree up and lit already.  We'll have to see if we do the same.  For now there is this small specimen of retro craziness on the fireplace mantel.

Quite a few families prefer a real Christmas tree over an artificial tree made from PVC plastic in China.  

The reasons are multitude; and among them are getting out and selecting one from a neighborhood or church tree lot.  Or getting out to a tree farm and picking out a tree, cutting it down and dragging it back to be bundled for the drive home.  Most trees are grown on family farms.  They're natural, completely recyclable and renewable.  They smell terrific too.

Depending where you live the supply of farm-grown trees might be tight for the 2024 Christmas season.   Best practice for this eventuality are to shop early for best selection.  

Roughly 21.6 million real Christmas trees were purchased in the US in 2023 at a median price of $75, according to the National Christmas Tree Association.  It is the period of time immediately following Thanksgiving that is peak time for real trees.  With Thanksgiving coming late this year growers face a short sales season.  Compounding the situation is the devastation wreaked by Hurricane Helene on western North Carolina, which produces more Christmas trees than any state except Oregon.  Who knew?

Delivering one of the most popular Christmas tree varieties, the Fraser fir, is a real challenge. One out of four Fraser firs sold nationally - and virtually all the Fraser firs sold on the East Coast - are sourced from western North Carolina.  

Compounding this is the impact of Hurricane Helene will persist for years.  It takes roughly a decade to grow a full-size Fraser fir.  And many of the trees damaged were several years from maturity, impacting supply for years to come.  The loss of 200,000 seedlings to flooding is staggering to a family tree farm.  And unlike soybeans and corn difficult to insure.

Labor is an additional problem and North Carolina is one of the largest users of the H-2A visa program for agricultural workers.  It's one thing to crack-down on illegal immigration; however the heated rhetoric about clamping-down on legal immigrants has made the hiring of foreign workers fraught and increasingly burdensome.

Growing Christmas trees is a lot like any other agricultural crop - only it takes longer.  When The Great Recession of 2007-09 caused many growers to plant fewer trees or go out of business as consumers curtailed spending.  That resulted in a supply problem along with price hikes a decade later.

Farmed trees are also challenged by other shifting consumer habits.  Aging baby boomers are putting-up fewer live trees.  According to the USDA trees harvested in the US has declined 30% since 2002; despite a population increase of 16% over the same period.

So maybe we'll wander out back and cut down a live spruce - not too small and not too big - and string some lights on it for the holiday.

You can learn more about the impact of Helene here...