Christmas tree prices to rise with inflation, tree farmers say

MARION COUNTY Ore. (KPTV) - The holiday season is a few weeks away, but buying a real Christmas tree this year will cost you more.

The Real Christmas Tree Board found that Christmas trees across the country will be up five to 15 percent this year in price. The industry blames a rise in labor costs, an increase in gas for shipping, and a worker shortage.

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Kalah Horner is the Public Relations Coordinator for Yesteryear Farms in Wilsonville. During October they sell pumpkins, but around the holidays, they sell pre-cut Christmas trees.

“We are expecting Christmas trees to be a little bit more expensive this year due to the cost of gas getting them delivered, the cost of labor has also gone up significantly and it’s also scarce to get people to work,” Horner said.

Anya Hall works at Weyerhaeuser’s Turner Nursery as a Seedling Sales Manager. Her company sells small saplings to Christmas tree farms around the state that will eventually be sold at a retail store like Horner’s. She said on their end of the supply chain, they do their best to keep their prices low with inflation on the rise.

“We’ve really had to buckle down as a team and put our heads together and say where can we streamline things, how can we be more efficient where we didn’t have to think about it in the past,” Hall said. “Weyerhaeuser is a large company and we’re able to draw from each other.”

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Hall said the process of getting a Christmas tree into homes can take up to 10 years. So the one-year-old saplings she grows will have a long road ahead of them. The trees ready to be sold this year may be pricier than before, but Hall said buying local will be cheaper. She knows these trees will one day be at the center of a family’s holiday gathering.

“There is definitely a lot of pride in growing a local product that is not just for reforestation but it touches a lot of different homes and a lot of different people,” Hall said.

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