HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — A local Christmas tree supplier has some advice as the supply chain problems are felt in the Tampa Bay area: Get your live tree early.


What You Need To Know

  • Local Christmas tree supplier shares issues with supply chain problems

  • He says there are not enough trucks to deliver Christmas trees

  • Because of that, he says farmers are not cutting extra trees

For some people like Stephanie Thompson, Christmas just ain't Christmas without a live Christmas tree.  

“I just wanted to get it early,” Thompson said, “because it was something that they (the kids) really want it this year, so I didn't want to get a fake one.”

Thompson wanted to get ahead of the curve to get her tree before any supply chain chaos meant that live trees couldn't get to local vendors. 

“It’s not a tree problem it’s a trucking problem,” said John Sansone, owner of Great Lakes Christmas Tree Farms in Tampa. 

Sansone is a local tree supplier to nearly 200 vendors in the Bay Area. He says tree farmers up north have plenty of holiday trees to cut and deliver, but there simply are not enough trucks to take them anywhere.

“In a year like this now, a lot of farmers are kind of skeptical,” Sansone said, “because of the trucking situation and they won't go ahead and cut extra trees ahead of time because they may not be able to deliver it."

And he fears that could create a tree supply shortage down here. Add to that an increase in delivery charges and tree vendors like Jay Lender are left with only one thing to do but raise prices.

“(The Christmas trees are) $10-$20 more,” Lender said. “Bigger ones might be more because they take up more of the truck.”

The best advice they have is to buy your live tree early.