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There was the smell of smoke, the sound of laughter, hot chocolate and cars spinning out in the snow. Long red sleds hauled trees back and forth between the parking lot and the entrance to Gouldson’s Tree Farm.
Despite not advertising his Christmas trees this year, Dave Gouldson said he’s seen a lot of new faces at his Sturgeon County farm.
“There’s really a lot of new people today that we’ve never seen, saying that they’ve never done an outdoor tree before. Hopefully, they will be back,” said Gouldson.
Suppliers say tree lots have been experiencing shortages in Christmas trees this year due to short supply and high demand.
Gouldson said his farm has been pretty isolated from the shortages experienced by tree lots in the region because they produce their own supply. However, even his farm is running low on Christmas trees.
Gouldson bought the farm eight years ago with his wife Annie, who died this fall. When they started, they had over 3,000 trees. They used to run their farm six days a week in December, but Gouldson said he can’t do that anymore.
“If we tried to open every day now, we wouldn’t have enough trees,” said Gouldson. “We’d run out for sure.”
Gouldson said he plants seedlings every spring but it takes years for them to grow. He isn’t worried about running out this year, but he said he may have a limited supply next year.
“We didn't advertise this year and still we have so many new people coming,” he said. “I think COVID had a big part to do with people wanting to get out.”
Paul MacMahon has been the person in charge of the 1st St. Albert Scouts Christmas Tree Lot for the last five years. He said the demand this year has been quite different than years prior.
“The demand for trees has far surpassed anything we've experienced in the 15 years that I've been involved. We've never sold this many trees this quickly,” said MacMahon.
He said they ordered their stock a month earlier because their supplier was predicting an increase in demand. The lot sold 90 per cent of their stock in three days. Their online advance sales were four times greater this year than they were in the previous three years. They will likely sell out, if they haven’t already.
“I'm sure if we'd ordered an extra 100 or so, we could have easily sold them,” he said.
MacMahon believes the drive behind having a live Christmas tree is because people are staying home instead of going to visit their families – more houses equals more trees. He also thinks there is a psychological part of the Christmas tree frenzy.
“Having a tree during stressful times – some psychologist will say that tradition is more important. It takes a bigger role, and having a tree is kind of a traditional thing. That might be playing into it a little bit as well,” said MacMahon.
Steve Johnson has been an employee at Evergreen Christmas Trees on Hebert Road for seven years. He said he’s sold more trees this year than usual, and a lot of new people this year as well.
“If business stays the way it is, they’ll be sold out before Dec. 24th,” said Johnson.
Johnson said there was a supply shortage last year and it’s carried on to this year too.
“We didn't get all we wanted – this is it,” he motioned toward the Christmas tree lot. “This is all I got. Usually, I have about 200 or 300 extra, but I don't have it this year.”
He said he doesn’t know why there’s been a shortage, but suggested it could be because one of their suppliers experienced a fire this summer.
“It takes 15 to 20 years to grow most of these trees, so if there was a fire and a lot of farms got wiped out – it's a little harder,” he said.
Johnson said he has his own theories about why so many new people have been buying real trees this year.
“You might as well smell a nice real tree while you’re at home for 20 days,” he said.
Back at Gouldson’s Tree Farm, Gouldson said their farm is less about finding the perfect tree and more about creating traditions and experiences. If he doesn’t have a good supply next season, he will still invite people to his farm for hot chocolate and a bonfire.
“Eventually the (trees) that are smaller will be getting bigger. I don’t know how long, it's really hard to tell because you never know what the (planting) season’s going to bring,” he said.
