JANESVILLE—Local buyers in the market for fresh-cut yuletide greenery—a Christmas spruce, a handmade fir door wreath, pine bows to dress up the mantle—might have to shell out more than last year.
A nearly yearlong trend of rising inflation and a two-year-long Midwest drought that has abated but has led to a shortage in fresh-cut, farm-grown Christmas trees, are fueling the rising prices.
In the Janesville area, the average price tag for live trees is up 10-15% over last year, local tree farm and holiday tree lot operators say.
Merchants say due to inflation, they’ve seen a spike in the cost of fuel, fertilizer and supplies, not to mention the cost of trees from wholesale farms.
Wholesale costs up
Trees from wholesale suppliers now “cost four times what trees were selling for a few years ago, in the pandemic,†said Geraldine McCluskey, who operates a Christmas tree lot along Court Street in downtown Janesville. It’s set up outside her décor boutique, Country Floral Shoppe.
McCluskey and her employee, Joe Harris, were in bright spirits earlier this week, even as a rainy cold front moved through. Under the gray sky, holiday lights the shop operators had strung above the fenced-in tree lot glowed cheerily onto dozens of fresh-cut fir trees.
The pair plans to funnel 15% of their tree sale proceeds toward a cancer foundation. But to soothe the sting for local consumers who Harris said will have to pay $10 or $15 more than last year for a live tree, the shop is throwing in a perk: a free poinsettia plant with each tree.
Some sellers are passing on to buyers price increases on trees and holiday wreaths that are roughly in line with inflation that shoppers have seen for other common consumer items.
A 7-foot, cut spruce tree that might have run $60 last year could sell for $70 or $80, depending on the variety of tree and its freshness, sellers say.
Sales still strong
Yet so far, local merchants say they’ve not seeing inflation putting a dent in holiday tree sales.
Candice Utzig, who operates Utzig’s Tannenbaum Acres tree farm off Highway 11 on the western outskirts of Janesville, predicted based on existing orders and foot traffic, that she’ll sell out of trees in the next week or so.
That’s business as brisk as any typical year, she said.
Utzig said one recent change in consumer habits is that fewer people now buy fresh-cut spruce wreaths by mail order. She said that’s driven by inflation in postage and handling costs.
In recent years, a Christmas tree shortage due to drought and some tree farms going out of business has forced farms like Utzig’s to order saplings from nurseries two years ahead of time. The saplings replenish a farm once older trees are cut.
But that two-year window in time can see significant shifting trends in the economy and weather patterns. Meanwhile, the saplings themselves often aren’t big enough to sell for 8 or 10 years.
Yet, once they’re cut, they must be sold fast before they’re no longer green.
Kissing balls
Harris showed some fresh creations he’d made, including large “kissing balls,†ceiling-hung decorations made of lush, fresh-cut silver fir tree bows. The ornaments this week were marked for sale between $70 and $90.
Harris’s shop is preparing for a possible influx of foot traffic during Jolly Jingle, a holiday festival in downtown Janesville this weekend. The fir kissing ornaments, which can’t easily be watered like Christmas trees, must sell relatively fast.
He patted one, made by hand in the shop.
“It’ll break my heart a little bit if we have to drop the price on these, but mostly because they’re labor intensive,†Harris said. “You make these items with a lot of time and care. Each is one of a kind.â€
Tradition
At Utzig’s farm, many buyers are return customers, who buy a live tree every year. Their personal fondness for a holiday tradition transcends inflationary pressures.
On Wednesday, one woman called to amend her tree order from an 8-foot to a 7-foot variety. Whether or not the cost factored in, the woman said she and her husband have gotten too old to decorate an 8-footer.
Utzig hung up the phone smiling.
“They have gotten a tree here every year since my father-in-law began this farm back in the 1960s,†Utzig said. “They never miss a year of that family tradition. It’s what’s what the memories are made of.â€