Chicago Christmas tree sales are strong, prices steady

Emma Hendren used to put up an artificial Christmas tree.

Then five years ago, she decided to switch things up and went to Gethsemane Garden Center in Andersonville to get a real tree. Each year since, the Albany Park resident has gone back.

“The smell — it’s fresher. It’s a wonderful thing to have in your home,” she said about why she buys real trees. “[And] I just love to support the local business.”

With December in full swing, Christmas tree sellers across Chicago are as busy as ever. Even on a Thursday afternoon, Gethsemane had a steady stream of customers perusing options, getting their trees netted and tied to the roof of their cars.

Sellers interviewed by the Sun-Times said prices are little changed from last year. Buyers can get small 3- to 4-foot trees for as little as $35. Standard 6- to 8-foot trees will cost anywhere from $75 up to $150, while bigger trees taller than 8 feet will cost more than $200.

Sellers also said supplies are good despite national headlines about a feared Christmas tree shortage after Hurricane Helene wreaked havoc on North Carolina, one of the top tree-producing states, and the Northeast suffered drought conditions.

“We’ve got enough trees to get us almost through the entire season,” said Regas Chefas, whose family founded Gethsemane.

Jill Sidebottom, a spokesperson for the National Christmas Tree Association, said many farms in North Carolina did not have their trees ruined by the storm. Rather, they had to solve problems with roads and other infrastructure issues to get their trees out.

She added the drought conditions in the Northeast primarily affected seedlings, not trees that are about to get sold. Christmas trees typically take five to 10 years to grow before going on the market.

“Sales are strong; most growers are pretty optimistic about” this year. Sidebottom said.

Chefas said Gethsemane gets the bulk of its trees from farms in Michigan and North Carolina. He said one of the North Carolina farms he works with lost hundreds of trees due to mudslides in the storm, but it still didn’t affect what Gethsemane got this year.

Rhonda Castillo, store supervisor at Christy Webber Farm and Garden in Humboldt Park, said she isn’t facing supply issues. The store primarily sources trees from a small farm in Michigan.

Castillo said the only thing sellers might be lacking are taller trees because of lingering effects of the Great Recession. In 2008, demand slumped and many Christmas tree farms went out of business, lowering the number of trees planted.

It means taller trees aren’t as plentiful as the demand for live trees returned and trees needed to get cut down quicker.

Despite any headwinds, Castillo has been able to serve her customers with few headaches. They’re coming in quickly this year as a late Thanksgiving means there’s not much time to get decorations up before Christmas.

“This year is more compressed,” she said. “I think people are like, ‘I gotta get my tree right away.’ The first and second weekends are usually our busiest.”

Gethsemane said they typically sell upwards of 7,000 trees. Chefas is expecting another busy weekend, but he cautioned that shouldn’t discourage anyone from getting a tree.

“We are a very full-service garden center,” he said, “and we have a lot of people that want to help anybody who comes in here.”