Maine's small Christmas Tree growers say their sales are up this season, despite an exceptionally wet spring, a severe drought, and tariffs that have made it a tough year for many farmers. Nora Saks visited a tree grower near Skowhegan, who has been trying to keep up with demand.
It’s about a week before Christmas, and Paul and Stephanie Lizotte have come to Quinn's Tree Farm in Cornville, just north of Skowhegan. But it's a Tuesday, and it's closed.
"We weren’t sure if anyone was around," said Paul Lizotte.
"Well, we’re not technically open today," said Matt Quinn, "but if you’re here and you want to go cut one, we can do it."
Rather than turn them away, tree farmer Matt Quinn hands them a handsaw, and sends them out into the snowy field full of fragrant balsam and Fraser fir trees.
"Run on out there, drag it in, we’ll shake it for you, bale it for you, and then get you on your way, okay guys?" Quinn said.
Quinn says his Christmas tree sales, both retail and wholesale, are up this season.
Quinn is the president of the Maine Christmas Tree Association. And Bryan Mayo, the vice president, says he's hearing the same thing from small farms around the state.
"A lot of retail lots have sold out, and a lot of farms have been very busy this year. What we've noticed the big uptick this year is in people who want to cut their own tree, which is really great," Mayo said.
At Balsam Ridge Christmas Trees in Raymond, Dewey Lloy says his inventory of just under 1,000 trees was gone by the second week of December.
"And I have to say that our sales this year for Christmas trees is up approximately 35%," Lloy said.
While trade groups report that tariffs are spiking the price of artificial trees from China this holiday season, potentially driving customers back towards live trees, growers in Maine point to a different reason for a bump in local demand.
Dewey Lloy says farms like his offer the chance to have a real experience, not just buy a product.
"I think it's tradition. You know, there's something about going out, and cutting your own tree, and then they get to meet the folks that grew it. They get to know exactly when it was cut, where it was cut," Lloy said. "I think people do crave a little bit of that, even now in all of our modern world of technology."
Some Maine farmers say their biggest challenge right now is growing enough trees to keep up with the demand.
Len Price has operated Nutkin Knoll Farm in Newburgh since the late 1980s.
"It's been the course for a number of years," Price said. "There are fewer and fewer farms, there are fewer and fewer people involved with it."
According to the most recent U.S. agriculture census data for 2022, the number of acres of cultivated Christmas trees in Maine fell by almost half over the span of a decade, as did the total number of trees cut.
Those who've stayed in business said that this growing season was no picnic; a wet spring helped water in the new plantings; it also made the tree crop more susceptible to disease, like needle fungus.
Then came the drought, Price says, which was particularly hard on young trees, and could slow the growth of even more established ones, pushing their harvest date back.
"We're always dodging another bullet," Price said. "What's the next thing coming, you know?"
Despite the challenges, some growers said they've resisted increasing what they charge for their cut-your-own trees, which typically range from $60 to $80.
And for farmers like Len Price, the customers make it all worth the effort, when they emerge from his fields with a tree they love, and head to the barn for cider and cookies.
"And the kids are just giddy, and the parents are giddy, and they tell you, 'Oh, this is the 10th year in a row we've been here, and this is our favorite place in the world.' And you just kind of go, 'Wow. We did that,'" Price said.
"Jeez, you're making him do all the work, huh?" Matt Quinn says to Paul Lizotte as he drags a plump balsam fir tree into the parking lot at Quinn's Tree Farm in Cornville.
"Why did you guys choose this one in particular?" asked reporter Nora Saks. "It's perfect and round and it's tall and it's full," Stephanie Lizotte said.
Matt Quinn slips their tree into a mechanized shaker to loosen any dead needles, and then stuffs it into a baler, which binds the tree in twine for easy transport.
As Paul loads the fresh balsam fir into their pickup for the trip back home to Harmony, Stephanie explains that she's always been a fan of live Christmas trees.
"I love the smell of them. They're not that inconvenient to keep watered and taken care of," Stephanie said.
"So, you don't do the fake tree thing?" Saks asked. "Nope, I never have," Stephanie said.
"During my life I've had a fake tree a couple times when I was a kid, but we had real trees for the most part. But it doesn't matter to me. A tree’s a tree," Paul adds. "It’s not about the tree. It’s about what happens around the tree."
While many Maine Christmas tree farms have run out for the season, Quinn and others plan to sell them right up until Christmas eve.
