Fir sale: Sticker shock on Christmas tree prices may last into future holidays

Inflation this year may push prices up for future Christmases.

Shepherd's Way Farms trucks in the trees they grow in Ashe County to the lot at The Village District. That's about a 190-mile trip.

The owner said his fuel costs more than doubled to get these trees to Raleigh. That's part of the reason you'll see higher prices this year.

Diana May sees that as she helps customers load up the trees they pick at her family's farm in Chatham County.

"We have a pretty good supply," May said. "I do think we’ll probably have a lot of that gone on Sunday,"

The pre-cut firs and white pines come from the North Carolina mountains, where fewer family farms are growing these evergreens.

And it's costing more to get them here.

"Because of the shortage, because of inflation, because of shipping prices and diesel fuel, the wholesale prices for these trees have been much higher than we ever expected or have ever seen before," May said.

The state extension says you can expect to pay 10-to-15 percent more than 2021 for trees grown in North Carolina.

Sean McCabe noticed the difference in price when his family picked a tree off the lot for their home in Apex.

"We paid about $120 last year," McCabe said. "$160 this year, so that’s about 40 bucks up."

"It’s Christmas time, so you just do it."

The Jordan Lake Christmas Tree Farm has more control over over the price tags on their trees. The choose-and-cut trees growing in the farm's fields cost the same as last year - $6 to $8 a foot.

We grow Virginia pine here, Carolina sapphire, cedar, blue ice," May said.

May hopes inflation on supplies today doesn't force them to raise prices next Christmas.

"We’ll just have to see," she said. "If we do, we still want to keep the price point to something to where all families can get a tree and it’s still going to be a nice one for them."