Hamilton area Christmas tree farms are closing early amid tree shortage and COVID demand

By noon on Saturday, Watson Christmas Trees had three pre-cut evergreens - an elegant Fraser fir, a long-needled Scotch pine, and a stout Serbian spruce - and a smattering of choose-and-cut trees in the field left to sell.

The family-run farm, which opened for the season just a week before, expected to close that afternoon.

We couldn't get as many trees as we wanted," said Jim Watson, the owner of the Mount Hope-area farm that offers pre-cut and choose-and-cut trees, as well as award-winning wreaths. So that's why we're closing today, because we don't have any more trees."

The first Saturday in December is National Christmas Tree Day - typically the busiest weekend of the year for sellers. But with steady demand amid the COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing low supply, many farms are already winding down operations for the season.

Watson said a substantial" amount of his trees died this summer - trees that were alive and well in June.

This summer was devastating," he said. In July, we had no rain and nothing but heat, and you could just see these trees in these fields just dry up and wither away."

Some families left the Watson farm with a wrapped fir strapped to the roof of the car, but many others left empty-handed.

This is really odd," said Todd Page, as he and his family left the farm without a tree. We usually pick somewhere, and we usually find something."

Watson's place was the Page family's second stop on their hunt for the perfect tree - a nice and full" tree six to eight feet in height.

We've always gotten a real tree," said his wife, Chris Page. This is a first, where we're going earlier and not having any success."

The Pages aren't the only ones looking for a tree earlier in the season.

Our opening weekend in November, we were busier than we ever were in November," said Eric Rinas, co-owner of Rinas Christmas Trees in Branchton.

Rinas said they opened on Nov. 28, and expect to be closed by Friday.

Right now, my plan is to just run five more weekdays, but not be open for the weekend," he said, adding that Monday to Friday tend to be much lower traffic. A lot of people are working from home and they can come during the week."

A few years ago, the Rinas farm would have been open from the last weekend in November until Christmas Eve, but fewer trees in recent years has forced them to close earlier.

We just started planting slower-growing species of trees, but ones that hold their needles longer," he said, citing concolour fir, Serbian spruce and Colorado blue spruce as some of the newer additions. So we had a sort of a gap coming down the pipe."

Shirley Brennan, the executive director of the Canadian Christmas Trees Association, says there are many factors influencing the countrywide Christmas tree shortage, including the delayed impact of the 2008 recession.

When there's financial unrest, it's not the first thing you do to go out and buy more property or plant more trees because you don't know what's going to happen," she said.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the pre-existing supply issue. For one, customers want to trim their trees earlier this year.

They just want that hope," she said, adding that fewer people are travelling and there are more households in need of trees as Ontarians avoid gathering for Christmas celebrations. This is one aspect that they can do that is a changeup from what they've been doing for the last nine months."

Business has been brisk at Fox Hollow Farms, a Christmas tree farm in Langton, which farmer Paul Rapai attributes in part to fewer snowbirds heading south for winter because of the closed border.

All those people are looking to decorate their homes and make it a great Christmas," Rapai said. And that's why there's a big rush on. People have the fear that we're running out of trees, so they go a bit earlier. And they have nothing else to do."

Rapai has fielded a few calls from other tree farms - including some in Hamilton - looking for extra stock to meet the demand.

We are not (sold out), but I know many people are. Many farms are closing down already," he said.

I probably could have sold 10,000 more trees this year, easily. But every grower's in the same boat. Everybody's production is down 30 per cent, because we had that fear."

The fear is left over from the recession, when American farms flooded the Canadian market with cheaper trees that were snapped up by box stores, grocery chains and garden centres.

They weren't supporting Ontario growers or Canadian growers. So we all started planting less," Rapai said.

Since it takes 10 years to grow a Christmas tree, the decision 12 years ago to cut back means there aren't enough trees to meet this year's surge in demand.

Now, because we were planting less, that has finally caught up with us," Rapai said. We have less trees in the field."

The planned closing date at Fox Hollow is Dec. 20, but if the current pace continues, Rapai might have to wrap things up earlier.

It depends on how the next two weekends go," he said.

Along with recouping some lost revenue, Rapai said being outside and interacting with the public is proving to be a big emotional boost.

It's really good being able to see so many faces I haven't seen in so long, and chat and say hi to so many people, even though we're six feet apart. They're coming to us, and they're happy and friendly. It's a silver lining."

Kate McCullough is a Hamilton-based reporter at The Spectator. Reach her via email: kmccullough@thespec.com- With files from J.P. Antonacci, The Hamilton Spectator