Several Facts You May Not Know About Christmas Trees
With Christmas a little over a week away, Americans are scurrying about buying last-minute Christmas gifts and hauling trees home to decorate for the holidays.
According to Time magazine, Americans will spend some $600 billion this holiday season. But what you might not know is that $1 billion of that spending will be for some 25-30 million Christmas trees.
The industry is a holiday job-creator that employs about 100,000 workers who dole out trees to revelers during the holidays. Here are some other facts you may not know about Christmas trees:
The Industry Is Really Large
There are 15,000 Christmas tree farms spread throughout the United States that take up some 350,000 acres in real estate. To put that in perspective, more acres of land are devoted to growing Christmas trees in the states than are devoted to growing apples (345,000 acres).
The Industry Is International in Scope
Canada grows and exports more Christmas trees than America. However, we actually export $4.9 million in trees to Canada. Of course, the balance is a bit skewed as Canada exports some $26.7 million in trees to the United States. For a while, U.S. Christmas trees were ensconced in a trade war with Mexico, which slapped a tariff on American tree exports after we refused to allow Mexican truckers into the states. The tariff was dropped in 2011.
American’s Still Like To Fake It
While a majority of Americans will buy a real tree this holiday season, some 30% of us will put up a fake tree. The retail winner in real tree sales is Atlanta-based Home Depot, which sold 2.6 million trees in 2012.
The Industry is Old
The organized sales of Christmas trees span half a millennium. The first retail tree lots went up in various German cities in the 1530s. The National Christmas Tree Association (yes, there is one of those) says that the tradition of decorating trees for Christmas began in Riga Latvia, where merchants decorated the first Christmas tree to liven up the local marketplace.
Regardless, whether you put up a real tree or a fake one for Christmas this year, the law firm of Farah & Farah in Jacksonville sincerely wishes you a joyful, safe, and healthy holiday season.
