In Reply to: Israelis continue to do terrible things posted by mh on November 12, 2025 at 10:22:17
Forget the Grinch — this year, it’s tariffs that could try to steal the Christmas tree.
Artificial Christmas trees will cost an estimated 10% to 20% more this season than they did last year because of increased tariff costs, according to several major U.S. importers. And the cost of lights could jump as much as 63% for the same reason.
Mass market Christmas decor has not been manufactured in the United States for decades. If vendors were to try to make it domestically, the mere cost of moving the manufacturing operations would be prohibitive — let alone actually producing the trees.
Mac Harman, the founder and CEO of artificial tree vendor Balsam Hill, estimates that if he were to manufacture Christmas trees in the U.S., the price of an $800 tree would skyrocket to around $3,000.
“When we make Christmas trees, some of the equipment is the size of a U.S. football field,” he told NBC News in an interview.
"There’s a ton of capital that’s invested in these factories, and the equipment’s so big you can’t even pick it up and put it on a container [ship] and transport it," he said.
Moreover, the most popular artificial option, prelit trees, are a very labor intensive project, Harman said. The lights are often strung by hand, a job that American factories have neither the manpower nor the budgets to undertake.
“There are over 20,000 people in China that manufacture Christmas trees. Many of those people are the ones that are experts in stringing the lights, and they’ve done it for a long time. They’re very fast at it. They’re good at it,” he said.