Demand for Christmas trees increases, say N.S. sellers

As Christmas approaches, Nova Scotia tree sellers are reporting an increasing demand, with some saying they are seeing their supply dwindle.

On the corner parking lot of the Halifax Forum, James Srousc, a forestry technician, is selling the remaining few trees on the lot.

“It’s crazy. We get a trailer each day and we run out in a couple of hours,” he said.

Sunday was no different. Srousc said within an hour most of the trees were sold.

“As soon as the trailer arrives, it’s a line-up of people waiting to get a tree.”

While they do have the supply, it is the demand that is increasing, which doesn’t surprise Srousc.

“The owner who rents this lot has his own tree land so the trees [are] there. [There’s] just not many people in the city selling, so it puts a lot of pressure on the lots that do have the trees,” he said.

However, that is not the case for all Christmas tree sellers.

At Bergman Landscape & Masonry Centres, salesperson Nathan Bartel said they expected to run out of trees by the end of Sunday.

“You know it’s been hard,” he said. “We were only able to get 700 trees. We can’t get more than that with everything being shipped out to the states.”

Bartel said in recent years it has been difficult purchasing trees from suppliers. He said it is not only because of the demand, but also due to the type of trees families want.

“We have a lot of people that are looking for bigger trees so 12, 13, and 15 feet, and it’s been really hard to get those heights,” explained Bartel. “It’s because they’re just trying to meet demand so they’re not letting it grow as long, they’re just farming them sooner.”

Sellers said they are also seeing people from other communities take home a tree,

“We have people from Spryfield, Dartmouth, Harrietsfield, and Herrings Cove coming here for trees because they can’t find any anywhere else,” said Srousc.

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