Cost of a Christmas tree

Christmas just isn’t Christmas without a plump Christmas tree, which is why American households will be going all out this year, spending almost $5.6 billion on Christmas trees in 2023, according to an analysis by finder.com. This is up from the predicted $5 billion in 2022.

Cost of a Christmas tree quick facts

• Americans to spend about $5.6 billion on Christmas trees in 2023.
• Americans spent about $5 billion on Christmas trees in 2022.
• 43% of American households will buy a Christmas tree in 2023.
• A forecasted 24.7 million real trees will be purchased at a projected median cost of $86.94.
• The 2023 forecast of $86.94 is 8.67% higher than the average spend of $80 in 2022.
• About 28.69 million fake trees will be bought at an average cost of $119.13.
• Christmas tree spending is projected to grow 12.41% in 2023 compared to 2022.

The research, which analyzed National Christmas Tree Association survey data back to 2009, found that roughly 43% of American households will buy a tree in 2023, with consumers spending on average $86.94 on Christmas trees — about $7 more than they spent in 2022.

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In recent years, fake tree sales overtook real Christmas trees, no doubt in part due to real Christmas tree shortages between 2016 and 2019, coupled with the covid-19 pandemic in 2020. Graphic source

Where will Americans be picking up real trees?

As far as buying real trees, about a third of Americans (31%) got their hands dirty and opted for a choose-and-cut Christmas tree in 2022, which is up 4 percentage points from 2021 (27%).

The next most popular option for buying a real Christmas tree in 2022 was at a nursery or garden center, up 7 percentage points from 2021 (12%).

Buying a Christmas tree at a chain store (17%) was the third most popular choice for consumers in 2022, which was way down from the 29% who said the same in 2021.

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• Table

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Christmas tree fun facts

How much do you know about Christmas trees? Chances are, not a whole lot. Don’t be a sap. Branch out and broaden your knowledge with some fern facts about the Christmas tree.

• In 2023, the White House Christmas tree was picked from the Cline Church Nursery, Fleetwood, NC and is eighteen and a half feet tall.
• Most Christmas trees in America are grown in Michigan, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Washington and Wisconsin, according to the National Christmas Tree Association.
• The average real Christmas tree buyer in 2022 was 42 years old.
• Most Christmas trees are between six and seven feet tall and can take up to 15 years to reach that height.
• The 2023 tree at NYC’s Rockefeller Center weighs an estimated 12 tons and is adorned with more than 50,000 lights and topped with a 900-pound star with 70 spikes covered in 3 million Swarovski crystals.

• Methodology

  Methodology

  We used data from the National Christmas Tree Association (NCTA) based on 2009-2022 survey results to forecast 2023 national spending on Christmas trees. The average spend for real Christmas trees in 2020 was forecast from NCTA’s survey findings from 2009 to 2019. The average spend for artificial Christmas trees in 2020 was forecast from NCTA’s survey findings from 2016-2018.

  The total amount expected to be spent in 2023 was determined by adding the estimated total amount expected to be spent on real trees and the estimated total amount expected to be spent on fake trees.

  Additional Christmas tree fun facts were sourced from the NFTA and Hunt’s Christmas trees.

About the Author

Richard Laycock is Finder’s NYC-based senior content marketing manager & insights editor, spending the last decade data diving, writing and editing articles about all things personal finance. His musings can be found across the web including on NASDAQ, MoneyMag, Yahoo Finance and Travel Weekly. Richard studied Media at Macquarie University, including a semester abroad at The Missouri School of Journalism (MIZZOU).

This article originally appeared on Finder.com and was syndicated by MediaFeed.org.

Image: Getty