Not too far from where I live there�s this corner lot selling live Christmas Trees. With a week to go before Christmas, he�s got about 20 left. Every other day I swear the guy takes a permanent marker to his advertising sign and trims another $5 off the price. A few miles away is another lot. That guy�s been there a while, and he can�t be too happy that this new guy set up shop this year because he must have at least 50 pine spruces and balsam firs looking for a home.
Everyone must be going really green this year, I thought. In Brazil, we had a fake tree. It was re-usable. So maybe artificial trees were back in style up here in the northeast, the hub of the stereotypical American Christmas.
Not so, apparently. Americans are not buying more artificial trees this year and at least one Chinese manufacturer is going to have a blue Christmas because of it.
�We are already experiencing the effects of the economic crisis. Things are probably going to worsen for our industry,� said Peng Hua, General Manager at King Tree Handicrafts Company, a leading Christmas tree maker, tells China Daily on Saturday.
King Tree is one of about 200 businesses in the area that help the country produce 90% of the plastic Christmas trees used in the world, according to China Daily�s source. Peng�s company started making the trees in the late 1980s and rakes in about $20 million a year, which is a fortune in China. The U.S. accounts for about 70% of the demand.
From where I sit, it seems there�s been less money tossed around this year.
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