DALLAS — For many North Texans, Black Friday unofficially marks the beginning of the Christmas holiday. And that means going out and buying a real Christmas tree.
“We come here every year,” Ellen Ruthart of Fort Worth said. “We always do it the day after Thanksgiving.”
Optimist Club of Fort Worth started its annual selling of Christmas trees on Friday.
They said they expect to sell 1,000 Christmas trees from Black Friday to Dec. 21 in the Farrington Field parking lot.
This year, they imported their Christmas trees from Michigan.
“Several years ago, we used to get all of our trees from Oregon,” Ron Trever of the Optimist Club said.
This year, some farmers in Oregon and Michigan are reporting smaller crops of Christmas trees.
According to the National Association of Christmas Trees, the 2008 recession is playing a role in the number of available Christmas trees this year.
Since it takes about 10 years for a tree to grow and mature, there are fewer Christmas trees available this year when compared to 2008.
Thankfully, Optimist Club said they have enough Christmas trees for anyone that wants one.
“All our money goes for scholarships to high school kids in the Fort Worth ISD,” Trever said. “So it’s money well spent.”