Real Christmas Trees: A Market Worth Supporting

Key Takeaways

• Christmas trees have uniquely long production cycles. Most retail-sized trees take seven to 10 years to grow, leaving growers exposed to multi-year weather volatility, biological pressures and labor shortages in ways most specialty crops are not.
• Artificial tree importers are a major competitors. Between 85% and 95% of artificial trees sold in the U.S. are imported from China, replacing years of real-tree demand and supporting few domestic jobs relative to U.S.-grown trees.
• Production capacity has contracted significantly. From 2002 to 2022, the number of farms harvesting Christmas trees fell nearly 30% and acreage declined by more than 150,000 acres (35%), reflecting decades of economic pressure.
• Real trees deliver environmental and economic benefits. U.S.-grown Christmas trees support tens of thousands of domestic jobs, preserve nearly 300,000 acres of open space and sequester carbon during the decade they grow — advantages artificial trees cannot replicate.

For many families, choosing a real Christmas tree marks the official start of the holiday season. The scent, the visit to the local farm, watching dad wrestle a half-rusted saw through the branches and trunk, hours spent sifting through family ornaments — these moments remain an iconic part of American Christmas culture. But behind that holiday ritual is a specialty-crop industry now contending with record imports of artificial competitors, decade-long production cycles, rising biological pressures and years of increasingly volatile weather. Even so, thousands of family Christmas tree farms continue to bring millions of fresh, U.S.-grown trees to market each year. Understanding the economics behind this crop sheds light on the challenges growers face and why buying a real tree is, now more than ever, an easy and meaningful way to support U.S. farmers.

A Highly Specialized Industry

Christmas tree farming is not evenly spread across the United States. Production is concentrated in a handful of states with the right elevation, soils, rainfall patterns and winter temperatures. Oregon and North Carolina alone accounted for more than half of the 14.5 million cut Christmas trees harvested in 2022, with Michigan, Washington, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Virginia following. According to the 2022 Census of Agriculture, roughly 10,000 farms harvested Christmas trees on about 293,000 acres nationwide, generating an estimated $553 million in farm-gate revenue for U.S. growers.

Tree varieties vary by region based on climate and consumer preference. North Carolina’s high-elevation counties are ideally suited for Fraser fir, known for its strong branches and needle retention, while Oregon is the leading producer of noble and Douglas firs, which dominate the Western wholesale market. In colder northern states, consumers are more likely to find spruce, Scotch pine or white Pine, species that tolerate shorter growing seasons and are popular on choose-and-cut farms.

Beyond their economic value, Christmas tree farms also provide environmental benefits. Growing trees absorb carbon, stabilize soil and preserve open space, with many farms supporting wildlife habitat.

Nearly a Decade to Grow

Growing a marketable Christmas tree is a marathon, not a sprint. Seedlings spend their first years in nurseries before they are hardy enough for transplanting, and once in the field, they need seven to 10 years to reach the 6 to 8 feet most consumers expect. Each tree is shaped through annual shearing, monitored for insects and disease, and watched closely for soil moisture and drainage problems.

A single tree is visited sometimes more than a hundred times over its lifetime, as growers prune, scout and guide its form by hand. The work is intensely physical and highly seasonal. Summer shaping often overlaps with labor demands across other farm sectors, while the entire harvest must occur in a tight November–December window. Crews, trucking and logistics all compress into a few short weeks. Few specialty crops demand more long-term labor or have a narrower harvest window than Christmas trees.

Imported Artificial Trees: The Growing Competitor

As much as Americans love tradition, they also love convenience, and the artificial, generally plastic, Christmas tree poses a stiff challenge for consumers trying to save time on both the initial purchase and the care of a real tree. Artificial trees arrive neatly boxed, often pre-lit and uniformly shaped, and once purchased, they hijack close to a decade of demand for real trees from farmers.

The vast majority of artificial trees sold in the U.S. are imported, primarily from China. In recent years, 85% to 95% of all artificial Christmas trees arriving in the U.S. came from Chinese manufacturers, shipped as ready-to-use finished goods. Import values have climbed from around $170 million in 2000 to more than $500 million in 2024, underscoring just how quickly the product has become a dominant competitor.

And while real Christmas trees support tens of thousands of seasonal and full-time jobs across farming, transport, retail lots and agritourism, artificial trees support relatively few domestic jobs beyond shipping and distribution since production is almost entirely offshore.

Chinese artificial Christmas trees currently face a modest 10% Section 301 tariff, but these products have still generally entered the U.S. market with minimal trade barriers. Real Christmas trees, by contrast, are grown domestically and avoid the costs, uncertainty and global supply-chain risks associated with imported products. In a recent industry survey, 84% of wholesale growers said they expect to hold or even lower prices this season, reflecting the persistent price pressure created by imported artificial trees.

For growers, the rise of imported artificial trees has been more than a shift in consumer taste. Steady growth in low-cost artificial alternatives contributes to periods of weaker prices, fewer new plantings and, ultimately, contraction in real-tree acreage and reduction in farms.

Other Challenges Facing U.S. Christmas Tree Growers

Beyond imported competition, growers face a set of challenges that reflect the crop’s long production cycle and exposure to the elements. Weather volatility has become a defining pressure. The 2021 Pacific Northwest heat dome scorched young trees across Oregon, while extreme rainfall in the East has fueled Phytophthora root rot and needle-cast diseases. Warmer winters also allow more insects to survive and spread, increasing pest pressure on trees that are still years away from harvest.

Labor and land constraints compound these risks. Fraser fir production in North Carolina is limited by the availability of high-elevation land, and rising land values in Oregon have shifted acreage toward other uses. Securing labor for planting, shearing and harvesting is increasingly difficult, with many farms relying on the H-2A program despite rising costs.

Risk management tools for these growers are limited. Unlike annual crops, Christmas trees do not have widespread crop insurance coverage options, leaving many producers effectively self-insured against multiyear losses. The Tree Assistance Program (TAP) can help reestablish trees lost to natural disasters, but eligibility is narrow, payments do not cover full replacement costs, and TAP cannot compensate growers for the decade of lost production time. For most farms, a major weather or disease event represents years of investment and future income erased overnight.

Long-Term Production Trends

Because Christmas trees take seven to 10 years to reach marketable size, today’s supply reflects planting decisions made nearly a decade ago. When weather losses, labor constraints and competitive pressure from artificial trees pushed growers to scale back in the 2000s and 2010s, those reductions only appeared in the data years later. The result is visible in the steady decline in both the number of farms harvesting Christmas trees and the total acres dedicated to production.

Between 2002 and 2022, the number of farms harvesting Christmas trees fell by nearly 30%, dropping from more than 13,600 to about 10,000. Acres in production declined even more sharply, falling from roughly 450,000 acres to 293,000 acres. These long-term reductions illustrate how sustained pressure on growers — combined with the crop’s slow biological timeline — has shaped the supply available each holiday season.

Why Buying a Real Christmas Tree Matters

Buying a real Christmas tree does more than carry on a cherished holiday tradition — it directly supports U.S. farmers and rural communities. Each large tree represents nearly a decade of work: years of shaping, scouting, managing pests and disease, and navigating weather that can change years of work in a single day. Purchasing a real tree keeps that investment viable for American farmers. It preserves open space, sustains multigenerational farms and supports seasonal jobs across the supply chain. At a time when growers face rising import competition, weather volatility and limited risk-management options, choosing a U.S.-grown Christmas tree remains one of the simplest and most meaningful ways consumers can support American agriculture.