How many Christmas trees are sold each year?

For many out there celebrating the holidays, Christmas wouldn’t be complete without a decorated Christmas tree. The sight of lights, glisten of baubles and the smell of fresh pine all signal the big break and time with family and friends that many all over the country have been waiting for.

What a lot of people don’t anticipate however is the sheer logistics involved in making Christmas happen. Every year around the UK, countless Christmas trees need to be cut, prepared and sold so that households are ready to celebrate come December 25.

So how many Christmas trees are exactly sold each year?

How many Christmas trees are sold each year?

The British Christmas Tree Grower Association (BCTGA) estimates that there are around 6 to 8 million Christmas trees sold in the UK per year. The most popular types of Christmas trees sold in the UK are:

• Nordmann Fir
• Norway Spruce
• Scots Pine
• Lodgepole Pine

Nordmann Fir is currently the most popular type of Christmas tree in the UK and is typically the one you’ll most likely think of when someone says Christmas tree. This type of Xmas tree accounts for about 80% of all festive trees sold.

Why do we have Christmas trees?

Putting up Christmas trees has been a tradition in many UK households since at least the early 19th century. It is thought that Queen Victoria’s husband, Prince Albert, introduced the practice to the royal family’s festive celebrations and from then on, it became a staple of royal Christmas celebrations. This then in turn spread to the larger public until most households who were able to acquire one had a Christmas tree.

Whilst Christmas has its historical foundations as a major day in the Christian calendar with the birth of Jesus, there is no explicit connection between the day itself and Christmas trees. The practice of bringing a tree into the home or communal living space for the winter solstice has existed in some European regions for hundreds if not thousands of years. In Pagan times, evergreen trees were viewed as symbols of life and fertility and so were used during celebrations, particularly in the winter.

Another way people used trees in the past to celebrate can be seen with the popular Christmas treat, Cadbury Yule logs. These seasonal treats actually take their name from the old celebratory Yule logs of Scandinavia. As with the Christmas tree, a celebratory wooden log was brought indoors during the darkest days of winter as part of the festive tradition. The log was then carved with runes and burned over the Christmas period, with many believing it was bad luck to let the log go out before the end of the celebrations.

Whilst most Christmas tree owners today wouldn’t be happy at the idea of their tree being set alight like the Yule logs of old, the purpose of bringing people together over the festive period has been a constant throughout history with celebratory trees, regardless of how they are decorated or used.

Christmas tree origins

The modern Christmas tree has its origins in Germany around the 16th century with the tree becoming synonymous with St. Nicholas, the inspiration for today’s Santa Claus. These early Christmas trees were decorated with apples, nuts, and other ornaments that were popular at times of celebration. Many during the time used these trees to celebrate the feast of St. Nicholas which occurred on December the 6th.

In the 19th century, German immigrants to the UK and USA made the practice a popular mainstream tradition and this gave way to the modern baubled commercial Christmas trees found throughout the world today. In fact, it is estimated based on market information and global population demographics, that there are a whopping 350 million Christmas trees sold worldwide each year!

Christmas Tree Statistics UK

• The sales of real Christmas trees in the UK have been declining in recent years due to the popularity of artificial Xmas trees.
• Around 6 to 8 million Christmas trees are grown in the UK each year.
• There are around 1500 Christmas tree farms in the UK, that’s an average of 4000 to 5333 trees grown per farm.
• The average price of a Christmas tree in the UK is around £50
• Artificial Christmas trees are typically made with PET or Polyethylene Terephthalate. These trees are made from recycled plastic bottles.

Christmas tree accidents

Unfortunately, Christmas isn’t referred to as the silly season by many for nothing, every year thousands of Brits have holiday mishaps resulting in injury and insurance claims. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) estimates that around 1000 people every year in the UK are injured by their Christmas tree each year. The common accidents in UK homes involving Christmas trees include:

• Falls
• Cuts
• Electrocutions
• Burns

Another risk of Christmas trees is the potential for allergic reactions by members of the household. Terpenes are compounds that give a Christmas tree its unique scent. These compounds can, unfortunately, cause some to experience allergic reactions when bringing a Christmas tree into the home. You can reduce the risk of this by opting for a hypoallergenic Christmas tree, such as a Fraser fir, noble fir, or Leyland cypress. Another alternative can of course be an artificial Christmas tree.

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References

*https://www.bctga.co.uk/

**https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/forestry-commission

***https://www.rospa.com/policy/home-safety/advice/christmas-safety