By Dan Burden, content specialist, AgMRC, Iowa State University, djburden@iastate.edu.

Reviewed March 2010 by Malinda Geisler, content specialist, AgMRC, Iowa State University.


History
The first decorated Christmas tree is reported to be from Riga, Latvia, (1510) but this is disputed by another report from Bremen, Germany, (1570) where a document mentions the custom. The cultural use of trees in winter festivals was practiced by Germanic tribes, ancient Greeks and others, and pre-dates the Christian religion. The Christmas tree is a strong cultural icon in the Rhineland of Germany and Scandinavia and probably was carried to the New World by Germanic and Scandinavian immigrants.

Background
In the United States, Christmas trees are an important part of Christian Christmas celebrations and of the national winter holiday. Trees make annual appearances in many city centers, including notable specimens in Rockefeller Square in New York City and the U.S. National Christmas Tree in the White House in the nation’s capital.

Christmas trees have been commercially sold in the United States since about 1850, when most were cut from forests. Midway through the last century, tree plantations began to appear, and now most Christmas trees are grown on or directly cut by consumers on plantations.
 
The best-selling species are Scotch (Scots) pine, Douglas fir, noble fir, Fraser fir, Virginia pine, balsam fir and white pine. While Christmas trees are grown for retail sale in all U.S states (including Hawaii), the top eight tree-producing states are as follows: Oregon, North Carolina, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Washington, New York and Virginia. An estimated 60 to 70 million Christmas tree seedlings are planted yearly for upcoming years’ crops. The industry employs an estimated 100,000 people [NASS, USDA; National Christmas Tree Association (NCTA)].

Production and Market
Almost all trees require pruning management (shearing) to attain proper branch and fascicle (twig/needle) density and a proper cone-shaped Christmas tree shape. Plantation production is the best system for delivering the regularly scheduled pruning, water management and general care necessary to produce the highest-quality product. On tree plantations, more than 2,000 trees are usually planted per acre. On average 1,000 to 1,500 of these trees survive; disease prevention, water and stand management are crucial to successful stand establishment. Roughly three-quarters of a stand remains after six to ten years or so of culling. Maturity for harvest usually is determined after the trees reach six to seven feet in height. Christmas trees often are “baled,” tied or similarly wrapped to protect the branches and retain the shape and overall quality of the tree during shipping.

Tree plantations are now a common source for marketed trees and for the “cut-your-own” (“U-cut," choose and cut) agritourism experience where consumers venture to the plantation to select and harvest their own tree. There are approximately 21,000 Christmas tree growers and more than 12,000 cut-your-own farms in the United States (NASS, USDA; NCTA). In addition, considerable tree production is undertaken in Canada, and the United States constitutes a sizable export market for those growers.

Figures for 2009 production from the top six tree-producing states include Oregon, 7.5 million trees; North Carolina, 3.5 million trees; Michigan, 3.0 million trees; Pennsylvania, 2.3 million trees; Washington, 2.3 million trees; and Wisconsin, 2.0 million trees (Pacific Northwest Christmas Tree Association). According to a 2008 study, the average amount spent on a Christmas tree was $36.50. 

Of the 28.2 million live Christmas trees purchased in the United States in 2008, 80 percent were pre-cut and 20 percent were harvested at cut-your-own enterprises. In 2008, 31 percent of Christmas trees sold were from cut-your-own enterprises. Other marketing methods included 24 percent of Christmas trees sold were from chain stores, 18 percent from nonprofit groups, 11 percent from nursery/garden centers, and 7 percent from retail lots. In addition, an estimated 175,000 live Christmas trees were direct marketed and shipped to consumers via e-commerce or mail-order catalogs.

In 2007, 343,374 acres of land in the United States were in Christmas tree production, down from 446,996 acres of land in 2002. The 2007 Census of Agriculture reported 13,374 farms growing cut Christmas trees and short-rotation woody crops with sales of $384 million.


Sources
Cut Christmas Trees: 2007 and 2002, 2007 Census of Agriculture, National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), USDA, 2009.

Christmas Trees and More, University of Illinois Extension.

Global Agricultural Trade System (GATS), Foreign Ag Service, USDA, 2009.

National Christmas Tree Association (NCTA).

Pacific Northwest Christmas Tree Association


Created July 2007 and links checked March 2010.