Helene-battered Christmas tree farmers depend on community this year: ‘It just clobbered us’

North Carolina is the second-largest Christmas tree-producing state, but its farms were walloped by the powerful storm

The 2024 holiday season is in full swing, and as Christmas tree farmers in western North Carolina continue to recover from the damage caused by Hurricane Helene, they say that customers and the local community are stepping up to support them this year.

North Carolina is the second-largest Christmas tree-producing state in the US, harvesting nearly 4m trees annually, mainly grown in the western part of the state.