There are 25 to 30 million “real” Christmas trees sold annually in the US. They are called “real” to separate them from the fake trees people buy so they can rebuild the same tree yearly and not have to water it or worry about falling needles. The top provider of real Christmas trees in Oregon which produces about one out of every tree sold.
According to the National Christmas Tree Association, Christmas trees are grown in all 50 states. That means there won’t be an availability problem. Over 350 million acres are planted with trees. The average time to grow a 6 to 7-foot tree is about seven years. These are the states that produce the most Christmas trees.
Oregon means to keep its spot at the top of the Christmas tree sales list by state. The Oregon State University Extension Service has a program to grow the trees most likely to do well with tree consumers. This included the popular noble fir and Douglas fir. To find trees that may be popular in the future, the university has experimented with “Turkish, Trojan and Nordmann firs brought to Oregon from the mountains of Turkey and the Republic of Georgia.”
Several other states do not want to be bested by Oregon’s success. North Carolina promotes itself as the No.2 provider. It calls its primary Christmas tree crop the best tree available nationwide–the Fraser fir. The NC Cooperative Extension writes, “96% or more of production in NC is the state’s native tree, Fraser fir.” These are usually grown at between 2,000 and 4,500 feet above sea level.
Leaving aside state rankings, the Christmas tree business is good business. Nationwide, about 15,000 tree farms employ approximately 100,000 people.
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