Christmas tree vendors quickly selling out 🎄

EFFINGHAM COUNTY, Ga. (WTOC) - It’s time to put the Thanksgiving holiday in the rear view mirror and cruise ahead to Christmas.

Over the weekend many families made that transition with a Christmas tree.

The tree shortage we have been talking about for a few years might continue again this year, while Rahn Farms in Effingham County still has trees on their property, it’s not the case everywhere.

In Savannah, the Lions Club sets up at Daffin Park and is always a popular spot to get Christmas trees. This year, they’re already sold out.

Last year the non-profit was not able to get any trees for their fundraiser, but this year they still had a smaller supply than a normal season.

“Typically we try to sell between 600-700 trees but because of the shortage and COVID, supply chain issues, we basically took what we can get and we got 447 trees and we were really excited about getting the 447 and especially excited about selling them in one week,” said Larry Forbes, Savannah Lions Club VP.

Because they had to do things a little different this year, their profits weren’t quite as high, but they still raised close to $10,000 for the community – with a focus on helping the visually impaired.

The big question, next year, they plan to be back with more trees again. Even though they sold out, there are still farms with trees – like Rahn Farms.

At Rahn Farms they see a lot of personal preference when it comes to the type of tree, but at this point, they will last through the holidays – that’s if you can get a tree.

Rahn Farms had what they call a busy and overwhelming start to the season – with close to 70 percent of their inventory already gone. They sold hundreds of trees over the weekend, more than double their sales on the same weekend last year.

Owners Kelly and Brad Rahn say that they attribute the increase in sales because of other area tree farms closing, as well as the growth in the community with many new customers.

“I cried in front of our workers last night because we went home Friday night after opening day and we were just very overwhelmed with the response that we had, we were so appreciative of the patience from our customers, it did take some time to get the trees up, but we were thankful they were here,” said Kelly and Brad Rahn.

They will continue to be open until they sell out. They will be here all week this week and into the weekend.

These trees at Rhan Farms aren’t the only ones going fast, other growers are also seeing huge sales early. Once you get it home make sure to keep water in the container at all times to keep it until Christmas.