5 Festive Facts About Christmas Trees

1. They Shed Like Crazy

A mature 6- to 7-foot evergreen will produce around 350,000 needles – and then leave most of them on your living room floor. But don’t worry: Scientists in the United States and Germany are working on cloning trees with retention genes to make most of those needles stay put.

2. There’s More Christmas Trees in America Than Americans

There are 350 million Christmas trees growing on farms in the United States. There are about 317 million Americans.

3. A Lot of People Work to Make Your Tree

The Christmas tree industry employs approximately 100,000 people in the United States. Holiday Tree Farms, which sold a million Christmas trees in 2012, hires 700 laborers every year at harvest time.

4. They Don’t Happen Overnight

It takes 8 to 12 years for a typical tree to reach harvest maturity. But Christmas trees don’t become Christmas trees without some work: To achieve that iconic conical shape, growers use a variety of shearing and pruning techniques. 

5. Americans Are Fans of Fakes

Americans buy between 8 and 12 million artificial trees every year; and the average family keeps theirs for 6 to 9 years.