LUZERNE COUNTY, Pa. — It’s billed as one of the busiest weekends to buy a Christmas tree, and local garden centers are booming.
So what’s the best way to go about picking one out? One determined kiddo had some good advice.
For many in the area, you can’t deck the halls at home without a Christmas tree.
And Saturday and Sunday are billed as one of the busiest weekends for local farms and growers with folks looking to find that perfect fraser fir or blue spruce.
That includes one garden center in Forty Fort, where Newswatch 16’s Ryan Leckey stopped by.
That's where 4-year-old Harrigan Nelson of Kingston was, a man on a mission.
"I’m going to get my Christmas tree,” said Nelson.
And along with his mom Caroline, they were among the many with the same goal who visited Edward's Garden Center in Forty Fort.
"We usually get it right after Thanksgiving, so it’s perfect timing. We usually get a fraser fir,” said Caroline Nelson.
"This is the busiest weekend. People like to get their trees even if they don’t put them up right away they get the best selection,” said Ed Kopec, Owner of Edward's Garden Center.
A trip for a tree, that’s always been a family tradition for Chris Sansevere of Kingston and his three kids.
"Yay or nay on the tree? This one! We’ll take it," said Sansevere.
Workers at this garden center say, surprisingly, many customers aren’t all locals.
"We had a couple people from out of state and out of the area from around Maryland and New York City get trees,” said Donny Camacho with Edward's Garden Center.
There was some buzz this year about Christmas tree shortages, but at Edward's Garden Center in Forty Fort, the owner says it’s not the case.
Even as a retailer who doesn’t grow his own trees, he was able to stock his usual 250 with help from local farms in Lehighton and Dallas.
While owner Ed Kopec has not had any issues, he does understand why other places around the country may not be having a "tree-mendous" selling season right now.
The reason? The fact that the pandemic forced more people to hang around their homes over the holidays during the past two years, giving them a lot more time to deck the halls.
”A lot of tree growers not only sell to a lot of garden centers like this, but they’ll also sell to people who want to cut their own. And I think there was a real surge of people going out with their families, enjoying the holiday, cutting their own trees, and I think that may have caused a little bit of the shortage,” said Kopec.
But luckily for many in the area, there’s great news for little Harrigan Nelson of Kingston, who found the perfect tree he couldn’t wait to decorate.
An important step he says so that "Santa can put all the presents we want on the ground,” said Nelson.
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