Christmas Tree farms and lots will open in many places just one month from today...November 23, the day after Thanksgiving. One calendar quirk, this year Thanksgiving is the earliest it can be, November 22. In 2008, Thanksgiving jumps forward to the 28th, which is the latest it can be. This can impact tree sales by reducing the number of sales days, particularly the extra weekend between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

I guess we should start off this blog with what’s new this year.

While we won’t be having the “Help Santa Find the Perfect Real Tree” essay contest this year, we are sponsoring a YouTube video contest. In a nutshell, people can make a 2- to 3-minute video and submit it to the group page at YouTube for the chance to win cash prizes. The contest page is www.youtube.com/group/getreal ...once you join the group, you can post comments and upload your video. We can’t wait to see what kind of creative things Christmas Tree lovers come up with. View Official Rules & Regulations.

Also new this year, consumers can get more involved in the Trees for Troops effort, now in its third year. We hope to deliver between 15,000 and 17,000 trees to troops and families of troops serving overseas, but to do that, we need consumers to buy trees and donate them to the program. Tree farmers will be donating more than 11,000 trees. There will be nearly 40 locations around the U.S. where tree farms and lots will have a FedEx trailer present November 30 - December 2 to collect donated trees. You can also support this program and other programs of the Christmas SPIRIT Foundation by making a cash donation at www.christmasspiritfoundation.org.

2006 Season
12/19/06 - Smells, Types and CBS Morning Show
12/15/06 - T4T Thank You; Questions!
12/12/06 - Smells, Sprays, Trimming
12/08/06 - Trees 4 Troops Update
12/06/06 - Watering; Cutting the Top
12/02/06 - Trees 4 Troops Update
12/01/06 - Trees 4 Troops Underway
11/25/06 - Split Tree Trunk
11/22/06 - A Living Tree
11/18/06 - No Fakes; Big Tree Stands
11/10/06 - Back to a Real Tree
11/07/06 - Narrow Trees for Condos
10/31/06 - Some Stories...
10/19/06 - The "Holiday Tree"?
10/06/06 - A Year's Worth of Work

2005 Season

3/18/06 - Spring Work; Starting a Farm
12/30 - Christmas Tree Fires #%?!
12/23 - Christmas Funnies
12/21 - Bird Flu Vaccine
12/18 - Contest Entry
12/16 - Cats, Shearing & Helicopters
12/15 - Don't Be A Fake
12/14 - Water Level; Politics
12/13 - Smelly Tree; Mail Order
12/12 - Interesting Questions
12/09 - Watering; Longevity
12/06 - Allergies
12/03 - Trees for Troops
12/01 - Hot Water for Trees?
11/30 - Colorants
11/29 - More Pets; Trees for Troops
11/28 - Pets & Trees
11/27 - Flocking
11/26 - First Blog Entry
  When to Buy a Real Tree
  Real Tree Care
  White House Tree; Grand Champions

Another new thing this year is the Real Tree industry’s “we’re not going to take it anymore” approach to the debate over whether a fake tree is a better eco-choice than a Real Tree. Quite frankly, it astounds me that there still is a “debate” on this issue as the choice is obvious if you think about it. Nonetheless, many consumers are still confused because they have been told (mainly by fake tree sellers) that they should use a fake tree because it means you “don’t have to cut down a tree” or that “you can reuse a fake tree. Seriously. I guess maybe there are still people out there who don’t know that Real Christmas Trees are grown on farms as a sustainable crop which means that harvested trees are replaced by newly planted trees every year. Well, to make things more clear and easy to compare, we put up a chart comparing fake trees and Real Trees point by point. You can see it on the front page.

Lot of exciting things going on this year. Stay tuned and send in your questions or comments for the blog.