The long road from a Christmas tree farm to your home

John Yang:

'Tis the season to buy a Christmas tree, but it takes a lot of people and business planning to get that perfect tree all the way to your home.

PBS News digital video producer Tim McPhillips visited one stop along the route.

Tim McPhillips:

You might say this is where the Christmas season truly begins, at a produce auction in the heart of Pennsylvania.

Freshly cut, the roughly 45,000 Christmas trees behind me are here for a single purpose, to be auctioned off in just a single day. This isn't just any auction, though. This one is billed as the largest Christmas tree auction in the world.

Ben Courtney, Buffalo Valley Produce Auction, Inc.:

The Christmas tree auction started in 1989.

Tim McPhillips:

Ben Courtney is the operations manager at Buffalo Valley Produce Auction in Mifflinburg, Pennsylvania, which holds this event every year. His father, Neil, is the auctioneer.

Ben Courtney:

We had about 3,000 trees back then and it's been kind of growing ever since.

Tim McPhillips:

The full auction runs across a Thursday and Friday in late November. Before the trees go on the block, multiple auctioneers snake their way through rows of Christmas decoratives, wreaths, large and small, Santa-themed planters, chain saw reindeer, and more, all laid out in an open-air warehouse to the size of an airplane hangar. But, on Friday, it's the trees' time to shine.

Most of the trees being auctioned off behind me are from here in Pennsylvania and from North Carolina. But others have traveled from as far West as Oregon and as far north as Canada.

Ben Courtney:

So they started arriving about nine days before the auction.

Tim McPhillips:

The auction takes nearly seven hours, with Neil leading it the whole way.

Neil Courtney, Buffalo Valley Produce Auction, Inc.:

Ladies and gentlemen, your eye is your guide, your checkbook talks, and when we say sold, you own it.

Tim McPhillips:

Perched on top of a red truck, he slowly rolls through the rows and rows of balsams, Frasers, white pines, and more, buyers from up and down the East Coast in tow.

Ben Courtney:

Our main customer are garden centers, like independent garden centers and farm markets.

Like Debbie Schmitt, who came from New York state.

Debbie Schmitt, Tree Seller:

We have three farm stands on Long Island, and we came to Pennsylvania to buy our Christmas — some of our Christmas items.

Tim McPhillips:

And Jack Harris from outside Pittsburgh.

Jack Harris, Tree Seller:

My dad always wanted to sell Christmas trees, and we started the Christmas tree lot, and we have a thing. Santa comes, the elves. My mom has gifts and crafts for all the kids.

Tim McPhillips:

But as idyllic as it may look, live Christmas tree sales are a billion-dollar industry and a risky business for buyers and sellers.

The last USDA census of agriculture found the U.S. cut down 14.5 million Christmas trees in 2022. More come in from Canada, but all are sold in the season that lasts barely a month.

Ben Courtney:

The pendulum could swing either way. It could be high price or could be very, very low.

Tim McPhillips:

Christmas trees can take a decade to grow, so farmers have to make it through 10 years of changing seasons, predicting demand along the way.

Ben Courtney:

And it's kind of hard to tell what the supply is going to be and what the demand is going to be that far in the future.

Tim McPhillips:

Seasonal success rests on the buyers' bets made here, how many trees to purchase, and how much to pay.

This is Mark Spicer's second year in the business.

Mark Spicer, Tree Seller:

It was really tough for me the first year because I had no idea how many to buy, and I bought a bunch of trees and had quite a few left over. I mean, there's nothing like paying to pick them up and transport them back and then paying to throw them away.

Elijah Lopinto, Tree Seller:

There is definitely a gamble to it, especially at auction.

Tim McPhillips:

The gamble doesn't end there. Elijah Lopinto and Dante Williams (ph) sell trees in New York City where sellers stake out their valuable street corners weeks in advance.

Elijah Lopinto:

First come, first serve kind of deal. The rules are, as long as you have permission of the closest business, you're allowed to sell anywhere on the street. As soon as the trees are sold, they're loaded onto trailers and hit the road to greet peak demand after Thanksgiving, just in time.

Ben Courtney:

It's a big push. As soon as the trees are sold, they're started to be loaded.

Tim McPhillips:

A push towards a home for the holidays, capping off years of risk, reward and Christmas care.

Ben Courtney:

There's a lot of people that put a lot of hard work into it long hours, but it's what we do.

Tim McPhillips:

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Tim McPhillips in Mifflinburg, Pennsylvania.

John Yang:

You can find additional tips about how to pick the perfect Christmas tree and keep it alive on our YouTube page.