Christmas tree farms across Northeast Ohio are gearing up for the 2024 holiday season. Many farms where you can buy pre-cut or cut-your-own trees are expected to open for business the weekend of Thanksgiving.
However, when you go searching for that perfect tree, you may need to be a little more flexible this year, according to Valerie Graham, Executive Director of the Ohio Christmas Tree Association.
鈥淭hey鈥檒l [farms] be opening here shortly,鈥� Graham said. 鈥淭here are plenty of trees in the state of Ohio and across the country. The only thing is that it may not be the tree that you want. It might not be a Fraser fir; you may have to go with a spruce. But there are trees out there.鈥�
Graham said that the lack of variety is an ongoing result of higher than expected sales of Christmas trees during the COVID-19 pandemic.
鈥淓veryone was kind of staying home, so they took their family out and they wanted a family experience with agritourism, select their new tree and that鈥檚 something that鈥檚 stuck around post-COVID at this point,鈥� Graham said.
According to Graham, some farms may run out of trees for the current season well before Christmas.
鈥淪ome guys may be open just two weeks, because they don鈥檛 want to dip into that next year supply,鈥� Graham said. 鈥淕rowers are kind of aware of it now, seeing the popularity coming out of the farms.鈥�
That hasn鈥檛 been an issue for Steve Wilcox, co-owner of Wilcox Farms in LaGrange in Lorain County.
鈥淣ot for us, we grow our own,鈥� Wilcox said. 鈥淚 would assume that it probably would for people that have them shipped in from somewhere else, but since we grow all of them here ourselves, that part doesn鈥檛 affect us.鈥�
Wilcox has helped at his family farm since it began in 1963 and now runs it with his two brothers. He said he had to raise prices this year to help cover expenses.
鈥淲e鈥檝e gone up a couple dollars because everything is going up,鈥� Wilcox said. 鈥淚t helps cover expenses, but we鈥檝e got a good supply in trees. It鈥檚 just a little too early to tell how the season鈥檚 going to go. We don鈥檛 know until we open the day after Thanksgiving.鈥�
While Wilcox said he has a good supply of trees this year, Graham said that could change for Christmas tree famers around Ohio due to the current drought.
鈥淭hose little seedlings may not have made it if they didn鈥檛 have a way to do irrigation,鈥� Graham said. 鈥淲ith them not making it, you won鈥檛 see an impact this year, but you will six years grom now, because it takes six to eight years for our Christmas trees to grow from seedlings to the stage that they can be sold and go into a person鈥檚 home for the holiday season.鈥�
Here's more information on where you find .