Christmas tree shortage impacting Albany tree sellers

ALBANY, Ga. (WALB) - It’s that time again when you’re searching for the perfect Christmas tree to decorate in your home this holiday season, but you may want to hurry. A Christmas tree shortage could cause you to miss out on picking the best one.

Some tree suppliers are saying that now they’re getting a third of the trees they got six years ago.

“It’s tough, you know the demand of trees has gone up drastically,” said Colton Glover, Owner of Trojan Tree Lot.

Sellers say this isn't the first year they've seen a shortage.(walb)

Glover said throughout the seven years he’s sold trees; this year has proven to be the most challenging.

“So right now we’re about 400 trees and we think we’ll be open for probably another day or so and we’ll be completely sold out,” he said.

This has caused most sellers to open their shops a week before Thanksgiving. The lack of trees is not only a result of inflation but also several droughts and fertilizer issues.

“The Christmas tree prices have gone up because of the fertilizer costs, so overall the whole operation itself has gone up but we’ve got less trees. So, everything has just gotten more and more expensive,” Glover said.

In Albany, a 58-year-old family business has also seen an impact on the types of Christmas trees they’re getting in especially since it takes 10 years for Christmas trees to grow.

“Particularly now where we’re seeing the impact is on larger trees. Anything over 8 feet is really hard to get,” said Glenn Eames, Owner of Eames Christmas Trees. “We used to be able to get two or three truckloads come in. Now you get one and you’re lucky if you get a full truckload.”

The shortage has also caused taller trees to decline.(walb)

Eames said his grower expects the shortage to last until 2025.

“One day we’ll get past this shortage of trees and hopefully go back to some kind of normalcy,” he said.

That however won’t stop these local sellers from trying to bring another element of the holidays into everyone’s home.

“When kids get out of that car and they’re running this lot with their family, it’s almost like they’re not in Lee County. It’s almost like they’re at the North Pole. It’s really the overall experience with the family that we like and that we really love to bring,” Glover said.

It’s because of the shortage that plenty of people like the Gatewood family have already picked out their Christmas trees.

“You can kind of tell that the trees are a little bit smaller this year. You know there’s not as many that have a lot of goof height to them but they’re still beautiful trees,” said Katie Gatewood, an Albany resident.

The shortage didn't stop families from picking out their trees this year.(walb)

Middi Moore and her family were also lucky and got the exact tree they were looking for.

“I have actually had a friend call me yesterday and we were driving home from our Thanksgiving trip, and she said, ‘you better hurry up and get there because there weren’t many left,’” she said.

But regardless of the shortage, The Hill family said it’s important to bring in early holiday joy at this time of year.

“A lot of people come and maybe take up a lot of good trees and you want to be there to get your special tree for your family,” said Israel Hill, another Albany resident.

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