Christmas tree growers and sellers around Britain are having a bumper year, in line with strong sales at garden centres, especially now customers are shopping for Christmas gifts and decorations.
“This year everybody is more than ever determined to have a fantastic Christmas,” Pete Hyde, owner of Trinity Street Christmas Trees in Dorset, told the BBC. “People are buying trees earlier and people are willing to push the boat out.” For many customers this year it is the first time they’ve owned a real Christmas tree.
Heather Parry from the British Christmas Tree Growers Association (BCTGA) says several of her 320 members have found that 2020 it is the busiest year they’ve ever had. UK Christmas tree farms usually sell around eight million trees, but this number is predicted to rise as high as 10 million in 2020. Growers are reporting that wholesale business to retailers was already 24 per cent higher year-on-year by the start of December.
Not only are consumers spending a lot more time at home, many Brits have also been hoarding quite a lot of cash, according to the Bank of England. With holidays more trouble than they’re worth, they now have their eye on a Christmas spending splurge, especially as there is a strong desire to support local retailers which suffered during lockdown. Smaller family get togethers are also translated into more smaller trees for individual households.
Ms Parry adds that more people want the smell of the outdoors and the sense that they are doing something “authentic” this year. Some are even buying an extra tree this year, she says. “Your home is more your castle this year more than ever before and you’ve got time to make paperchains, bake the salt dough decorations.”
York Christmas Trees, which has supplied this year’s tree to 10 Downing Street, has been so busy “there’s been no time to breathe” says owner Olly Combe. “My wholesale customers are ringing back, wanting more trees, and I’m getting enquiries from people I’ve never sold to before.” Mr Combe is selling so many trees that he is having to be careful not to use up next year’s stock of saplings.
The boom for British tree sellers is partly due to a lack of imports from Denmark, which were affected by the new strain of Covid-19 found at mink farms, compounded by hold-ups at British ports.
As for which tree to buy, Mr Hyde told the BBC: “If you want a good-shaped tree with good needle retention, then go for a Nordmann fir – which is probably 80% of the market, it’s what everyone has. If you want a slimmer tree with a lovely smell, go for a Fraser fir or a silver fir.”
