On 112 acres of rolling hills in Lunenburg, Massachusetts, Dan Pierce and his wife grow thousands of Fraser firs, balsam firs and blue spruces. He expects to sell more 2,000 of them this Christmas season.
“I think there’s going to be an upswing in sales of trees this year, and I do believe they’ll be a shortage of trees and product for varying reasons,” he said.
As past president of the Massachusetts Christmas Tree Association, Pierce said dozens of tree farms in the state and elsewhere are disappearing, something that’s spurred a tree shortage for years.
Add to that recent fires in Oregon and California and the pandemic, which has slowed the usual flow of trees from Canada into the U.S., and some garden centers like Kazanjian’s Groton Nursery are scrambling to import trees.
“We normally don’t get trees this early,” owner Kelly Kazanjian said. “But we think because everyone’s home, and everyone’s decorating early there’s a real need for people to decorate early.”
And that means traditions like buying a Christmas tree are coming early during the pandemic, as families look to count on something special when so much has changed.
