LACKAWANNA COUNTY, Pa. — Owners of Christmas tree farms and nurseries say they're not only seeing more customers, but those customers are buying their trees earlier. They attribute it all to pandemic boredom.
Jeff Roba showed us around the thinned-out fields of Christmas trees at Lakeland Orchard and Cidery in Scott Township. Roba made the decision to close the farm early this week, and the Roba family's other farm near Dalton will likely sell out by next week.
"We have a limited inventory left over there, and we will be closing when that's sold, but this will be the first time in our history that we will have to close for tree sales," said Roba.
Roba says Christmas tree sales are up by close to 50 percent this year, doubled with a decrease in available wholesale trees.
"The Christmas tree industry is not really built for these kinds of spikes. It takes eight to ten years to grow a tree. it takes a lot of planning, and I don't think anyone 10 years ago would have predicted that this is the situation we'd be in in 2020."
At the Mulberry Bush Nursery in Scranton, people can buy precut trees, and owner Michael Colaneri says he's seeing more first-time fresh Christmas tree buyers than ever before.
"First-time buyers have a lot of questions. They want to know how to take care of the tree. A lot of them don't have a tree stand. We try to put them in a stand, straight stand, where we drill the tree, and it's a hassle-free deal, so that's what we try to do," Colaneri said.
Garland and wreaths are selling fast, too. People are decorating for the holidays more and earlier this year. Colaneri suspects it's because we're all spending so much more time at home.
"A little bored, so they got a jump on Christmas."
The farm and nursery owners we talked to say the increase in demand for Christmas trees this year will likely affect the industry for the next several years, so if you're thinking about getting a real tree again next year, expect it to be more expensive.