Christmas tree shoppers this season should have their pick of firs and pines at similar prices to last year.
Even though Pennsylvania has seen drought conditions for the past two summers, mature trees were largely unaffected, said Gerrit Strathmeyer, president of the Pennsylvania Christmas Tree Growers Association.
That’s because it takes up to eight years to grow the most popular sizes of trees, so those ready to harvest this year already had deep root systems that allowed them to weather the lack of rain, Strathmeyer said.
Those conifers should be in good shape to take home. Freezing temperatures send trees into a dormant state, Strathmeyer said, which helps them keep their needles longer.
In the commonwealth, Strathmeyer said the most popular trees are Fraser, Douglas, and concolor firs, usually between 6 and 8 feet tall. Firs hold onto their needles better than spruce trees, Strathmeyer said.
An August survey of Christmas tree growers nationwide from the Real Christmas Tree Board, a promotional organization, found that 84% of respondents did not plan to raise wholesale prices for 2025, and that some planned to lower prices.
The National Christmas Tree Association reported the median price of a tree in 2023 was $75.
Strathmeyer, who also serves as operations manager for his family’s tree farm in York County, said many growers he’s talked to are holding prices steady or lowering them slightly for 2025.
“ I think the overall concept with all growers is that we don’t want to push people away from getting a real tree,” he said. “We want to make sure we’re being fair to people, fair to ourselves, and encourage people to just continuously get a real tree.”
More than 80% of families that put up a Christmas tree will use an artificial one, according to a survey from the American Christmas Tree Association, a nonprofit that promotes fake trees.
Strathmeyer called artificial trees “the ultimate competition.” He said his family used to sell about 6,000 trees at their farm retail lot in the late 1990s. In recent years, the number is closer to 3,000.
Pennsylvania is home to 1,400 Christmas tree farms that produce about one million cut trees each year, according to the state Department of Agriculture.
The market for trees has evened out since shortages in 2020, said Charles Trax, vice president of Trax Farms in Washington County. Tighter supply that year was due to reduced planting during the Great Recession and a surge in interest in live trees as people dealt with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Trax said he’s had no problem sourcing trees this year, securing 1,800 for the season. He credits that to the decades-long relationships the farm and market has had with Christmas tree growers.
“We chase the best trees we can find,” he said. This year they’re offering Noble firs, advertised as “the Cadillac of Christmas trees” with strong branches and great needle retention.
A 6-foot premium Fraser fir at Trax Farms costs $90 this year. Trax said his farm is one of a few to offer trees more than 20 feet tall, which often find a home in town squares. A 22-foot tree costs $500 at the farm.
Trax said he usually sells out of trees.
Once you have a tree in your home, it’s important to maintain it. Penn State Extension recommends using a tree stand that can hold at least one gallon of water, checking the water level daily, and keeping trees away from heat sources.
If tree needles start to break easily when touched, the tree is dry and should be removed.