The Christmas Tree:
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Prepared by Gary A Chastagner Department of Plant Pathology, Washington State University, Puyallup, WA 98371

D. Michael Benson Department of Plant Pathology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695-7629

Christmas trees are an important specialty crop. Each year approximately 33 to 36 million Christmas trees are produced in North America and 50 to 60 million trees are produced in Europe (www.christree.org, www.nwtrees.com, Davidson, 1999, and Frampton and McKinley, 1999). In the United States, there are an estimated 15,000 growers, which includes 5,000 choose and cut farms. These growers produced 33 million trees in 1998 with an estimated farm gate value of $462 million. Based on a standard 6- to 7-foot tall tree, it is estimated that consumers spent about $1.5 billion for Christmas trees last year. Because of their superior postharvest needle and moisture retention characteristics, demand for noble and Fraser fir Christmas trees has rapidly increased. However, there are several diseases that are limiting the growers' ability to meet the demand for these trees.

The development of the Christmas tree industry and current trends
    The use of evergreens to decorate homes during winter celebrations dates back to the early Egyptians, Hebrews, Druids, and Persians. During the 7^th century, the pagan custom of using greenery to celebrate the winter solstice became a part of religious Christmas festivities. However, if was not until the 1500’s that Germans in Strasbourg began cutting firs from local forests for display at Christmas. In later years, these trees were decorated with cutout paper flowers, fruits, cakes, tinsel and sugar. By the 18^th century, Christmas trees were being decorated with wax candles and by the end of the century decorated Christmas trees could be found throughout Germany (Albers and Davis, 1997). In Europe today, Germany produces an estimated 19 million trees followed by France at 9.2 million trees, Denmark at 8.5 million trees, Belgium at 5.2 million trees and the U.K. at 4.4 million trees (Davidson, 1999).

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