By Clint Thompson
Christmas tree sales started early and ended earlier for one South Georgia farmer.
“The sales were unreal,” said Jerry Hubbard, owner of Hubbard Christmas Tree Farm in Thomasville, Georgia.
Hubbard’s ‘unreal’ year of Christmas tree sales started in mid-November and ended in mid-December. People visited from all over the Southeast to cut a tree. Hubbard even had to end sales early just so he would have a crop to sell next season.
“They were a lot of people that wanted live trees and started really early. We opened a week before Thanksgiving. We started selling some of the 14th of November,” Hubbard said. “They want them earlier and earlier every year. It just seemed like this year they were in a frenzy to get them. I said, we’ll go ahead and open, but it caused me to have to close down a week early, too.
“We get people from all over the place. They come from as far as Miami, Florida and all in between just to cut a Christmas tree. It’s unreal.”
Not a Surprise
‘Unreal’ sales were not surprising this Christmas season. Jeremy Pickens, Alabama Assistant Extension Professor in Horticulture at Auburn University, reported in late November that record sales were expected after last year’s banner season. Pickens and Hubbard attribute some of the staggering sales to the current coronavirus pandemic.
People were looking for reasons to get out of the house.
“I had one call in October that wanted a tree. I said, ‘It’s not going to live to Christmas.’ I said, ‘Why do you want one now?’ They said, ‘We’re just bored.’ I think people are tired of being shut up and they’re wanting to get out,” Hubbard said.
The current supply chain shortage also played a role, especially early in the season.
“Every time you turned on the news there was something about there was a shortage of Christmas trees and a shortage of artificial trees. A lot of people did come early, I think because of that, trying to make sure they had a tree,” Hubbard said. “That probably contributed to sales being so strong to begin with.”