Christmas Trees: Traditions, Production, and Diseases

The Christmas tree industry today
There have been a number of major changes in the Christmas tree industry in the past 40 to 50 years. After World War II, increased number of trees were being planted in plantations and in the late 1940’s and early 50’s growers started to shear trees to increase their density in response to consumer demands for higher quality trees (Albers and Davis, 1997, Davis, 1996 and Kerwin, 1994). In the early 1980’s some large growers began using helicopters to transport trees from the field to their shipping yard to increase the efficiency of harvest and minimize mechanical damage to the trees.

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Today, over 95% of the Christmas trees harvested each year come from plantations and the most common species are Douglas-fir, Fraser (A. fraseri), noble (A. procera), and balsam firs, Scotch, Virginia (P. virginiana) and white pines (P. monticola). With improvements in transportation, regional production is now shipped throughout the United States and trees are exported to markets that include Japan, China, Hong Kong, Philippines, Canada, Mexico, Guam, Puerto Rico, and Samoa (www.christree.org and www.nwtrees.com ).

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In Europe, consumers still prefer more open trees with layered branches. Christmas trees are still displayed for a relatively short period of time right around Christmas and in some places, candles are still used to illuminate trees (Davidson, 1999, Frampton and McKinley, 1999 and Tompkins, 1999a & b). Although this was also true in the United States, today consumers tend to prefer more dense trees and start purchasing their trees right after Thanksgiving in late November. This means that trees have to be harvested earlier and last longer when they are displayed indoors.