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Christmas Tree Facts

November 30, 2009

The first decorated Christmas tree was in Riga, Latvia, in 1510.

Mark Carr started the first retail Christmas tree lot in 1851 in New York.

In 1856, Franklin Pierce was the first president to place a Christmas tree in the White House.

President Calvin Coolidge started the National Christmas Tree lighting Ceremony on the White House lawn in 1923.

From 1887 – 1933, a fishing schooner called the “Christmas Ship” would tie up at the Clark Street Bridge in Chicago to sell spruce trees from Michigan.

The tradition of an official Chicago Christmas tree started in 1913 when one was first lit in Grant Park by Mayor Carter H. Harrison.

31.3 million real Christmas trees were purchased in the U.S. in 2007.

The retail market value of the 31.3 million trees purchased in 2007, at the average price of $41.50, was $1.3 billion.

Eighty percent (80%) of artificial trees worldwide are manufactured in China, according to the U.S. Commerce Department.

There are close to 350 million real Christmas trees currently growing on Christmas tree farms in the U.S. alone, all planted by farmers.

The top Christmas tree producing states are Oregon, North Carolina, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Washington.

Indiana ranks 11th nationally in the number of Christmas trees harvested in 2007, with 198,899 trees. (By contrast, in Oregon 6.85 million trees were harvested.)

There are close to 15,000 farms growing Christmas Trees in the U.S., and over 100,000 people are employed full or part-time in the industry.

It can take as many as 15 years to grow a tree of typical height (6 - 7 feet) or as little as 4 years, but the average growing time is 7 years.

Edward Johnson, Thomas Edison’s assistant, started the idea of electric lights for Christmas trees in 1882.

Christmas tree lights were first mass-produced in 1890.

There are about 500 million real Christmas trees growing in the U.S., on about 500,000 acres of land.

Sources:
National Christmas Tree Association: www.realchristmastree.org
University of Illinois Extension http://urbanext.illinois.edu/trees/facts.cfm