Families choose live Christmas trees this year in midst of tree shortage and pandemic

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    Asheville, NC (WLOS) — On Black Friday, while traditionally many people can be found lined up outside or packing the inside of stores with the biggest sales of the year, in a pandemic year, many families chose this Black Friday to flock to places like the WNC Farmers Market in search of the perfect Christmas tree.

This year is also seeing a national tree shortage.

“I always think Christmas starts the day after Thanksgiving,” said Jeff Cashman, of Spartanburg.

Considering the wild ride we call 2020, many find comfort in the fact that it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas — even if things look a little different.

“The Christmas spirit lives on, mask or not,” said Brad Fountain with Natural Mountain Growers.

At the WNC Farmers Market, Santa sat behind plexiglass for visitors’ safety, but the mood on Black Friday, Nov. 27, was still merry as folks like the Cashman family looked for a tree.

“And it’s a little bit of a late Thanksgiving this year, so we wanted to jump right into the Christmas season,” said Molly Cashman, Jeff’s wife.

The tree shortage, experts say, has nothing to do with the pandemic.

They said the root of the problem goes back to the 2008 Great Recession. Because of the shortage, some vendors won’t be able to replenish their lots once their inventory is gone.

“During the ’08 recession; harder to get saplings, a lot of the nurseries went under,” Fountain said. “And farmers weren’t getting the saplings to replant and repopulate their tree farm.”

“We’re still about six years away from catching up. A lot of trees didn’t get replanted,” said Keith Hoilman of Hoilman’s Tree Farm in Banner Elk.

“I think that slowed down some things,” Hoilman said of the recession. “Some farms quit setting and they’ve aged out. Some of their families quit setting.”

In the meantime — with the Cashmans — there was no shortage of enthusiasm.

“Hey George, come see if you like this one!” Molly said to her son.

“Yes, it’s the right size, it’s the right size!” George yelled, jumping with excitement.

“I love it!” EmmyLou exclaimed, adding to an exciting family moment.

“And I think we found the perfect one!” EmmyLou said afterwards. “We thought it was the best.”

Love at first sight, she said.

“We are really excited to celebrate,” Molly said. “We have a lot to be thankful for, even in a wild year like this one.”

That was a sentiment shared by a lot of folks on this 2020 Thanksgiving weekend.

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