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?