You may have heard there’s going to be a Christmas tree shortage this year, but experts say that’s simply not true.

Doug Hundley, a spokesperson for the National Christmas Tree Association (NCTA), says, “The shortage talk has been going on for the fifth year now. And those of us at the NCTA have tried to put water on that fire, but it just doesn’t work.”

Hundley adds that people keep the story up because between 1995 and 2015 there was an oversupply of trees, adding, “People were very accustomed to seeing hundreds of trees on tree lots all the way through Christmas Eve and even the week of Christmas. That’s not a good sign for us of course. It wasn’t that demand was down, we had just planted a lot of trees.”

At the time, it meant the farmers couldn’t raise prices, and it made profit margins slim, so by the time the Great Recession hit, many cash-strapped farmers decided to plant fewer seedlings.

The take home message: there is no Christmas tree shortage—there is just enough supply to match demand, whereas up until 2015, there were far more Christmas trees available then supply demanded. 

Source: KTLA