Christmas tree sales in Nova Scotia are up this year

Nova Scotia enjoyed a successful Christmas tree season this year.

It’s less than a week to Christmas and tree lots across Halifax are either sold out or are close to it.

Vivek Sakhi Lata is grateful some lots were still open since it’s late in the season. It was a last-minute decision for his family, and their first time purchasing a real Christmas tree.

“We are immigrants and not owning a big house, we are living in a small house, and this is new to our culture to put a Christmas tree in the house so we took a lot of time to understand that we can buy it and put it in the house and my daughter was like ‘papa can we please put a tree in the house,’ so I came here as this is his first time getting a tree for his family,” says Vivek Sakhi Lata, a Halifax resident.

He stopped in at a new tree lot run by two university students and got a medium sized tree for their home.

“We are now being a part of Canadian culture and community, so we wanted to be Canadians and teach my kids what the culture is and how to celebrate. I don’t want her to feel like her friends are getting all these gifts and she doesn’t get anything. So, we are also planning that kind of setup at home,” adds Sakhi Lata.

For the tree lot owners of this spot, they do it to be involved in the community.

“It’s nice to have one of our trees in as many homes around the community as possible,” says William Robichaud, a co-owner of Classic Christmas Trees Halifax.

Robichaud and Daniel Bar are in their third year at Saint Mary’s University, and they created Classic Christmas Trees Halifax to not only give back but to earn some extra money to put towards school.

“I was sitting at SMU last year and my grandfather used to sell trees when he was younger and it just seemed that a lot of tree lots are selling them for quite expensive so we thought we would see how much they really cost and make a few dollars and cheaper for everyone else,” says Robichaud.

They sell the smaller trees for 50 dollars and the larger, 10-to-12-foot trees for 70 dollars.

“Every tree we donate a couple dollars to feed Nova Scotia,” says Robichaud.

Last season they opened their lot at Pizza Co. on Joseph Howe Drive in Halifax but moved to the Atlantic Superstore down the street near the end of the season and felt it was a better fit.

They sold 75 last year and 350 this year.

“We didn’t sell as much last year. We were learning but this year we fulfilled our goals and sold almost everything they have,” says Robichaud.

They weren’t the only tree retailers that experienced success this season. The president of the Christmas Tree Council of Nova Scotia says sales increased for local tree sales.

“Some up to 10 per cent and some more so it’s really encouraging to see Nova Scotians buying real and keeping Christmas real. The overall sales have been good, the traffic has been steady,” says Mike Harlow.

But that trend did not hold onto the international markets like the U.S. due to the uncertainty.

“The larger markets would be your big box store markets, there has been a significant decrease in demand for trees early in the season and it really reflects back to the uncertainty with the U.S. market and people watching their pocketbooks, upwards to 40 per cent in some box stores in decline of ordering trees,” adds Harlow.

Harlow says with 80 per cent of Nova Scotia’s trees shipped to the U.S., growers are working to expand into other markets.

“Nova Scotia trees, somewhere between 800,000 and 900,000 are cut annually, and 80 per cent of that ends up in the U.S. We are all looking for new markets and growers are starting to expand their search into the Asian markets, into the South American markets, into other Caribbean Islands and its grabbing hold and starting to take off,” adds Harlow.

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