Thanksgiving is over, the leftovers are either in the fridge or your belly and now it is time for Christmas.  Did you start decorating yet? My wife and I have.

By the way as a side note, turkey from Thanksgiving is always much better as a leftover in a sandwich with great bread and Miracle Whip. It has to be Miracle Whip though.

I saw an interesting headline in the Detroit News that stated “Christmas tree demand outpaces growth in 'tight' Michigan market”.  If I may, I would like to go on another tangent. That headline was much better than another Detroit News headline I read this morning that stated “Man critical after head run over by train in Pontiac”.

Back to my Christmas tree piece.  Along with other factors it appears that our economy is doing so well that more people are opting for the pricier live trees rather than pulling out their artificial trees.

Amy Start is the executive director of the Michigan Christmas Tree Association which represents 150 growers in the state of Michigan said:

“Basically, it’s a tight market nationally. The demand is exceeding supply…Trees on the wholesale side are sold out for the season.”

Other than our economy doing well they say other factors for this shortage are due to:

  • More growers are selling to big box stores because it’s more lucrative
  • Some growers have elected to sell to Amazon whom recently added Christmas trees to its online delivery options
  • Millennial's are choosing real trees over artificial ones.

What I did not know and found interesting was Michigan is the third-largest producer of Christmas trees in the country.  Only the state of Oregon and North Carolina produce more.

Also, Michigan harvests about 2 million trees a year in comparison to the 25 to 30 million trees that are sold each year across this great country.

You might be wondering, which is the largest Christmas tree farm in Michigan?  Well that would be Dutchman Tree Farms, very close to Cadillac Michigan.  They tell us that they have been shipping Christmas trees since mid-November to garden centers, chain stores, retailers and independent corner tree lots. Dutchman Farms will ship more than 750,000 trees this year.

That is a whole lot of Christmas spirit.

 

More From WBCKFM