SAN ANTONIO, Tx — The countdown to Christmas has begun and many people will be digging a little deeper in their pockets to purchase real Christmas trees this year.
For over 50 years William Murphy, the owner of Murphy’s Christmas Trees, has spread the holiday spirit to families by helping them find their special tree. Keeping the price low has become a challenge.
“The climate, the soil, the heat,” Murphy said. “They don’t grow good around here.”
Unable to efficiently grow Christmas Trees here in San Antonio, The Christmas Tree man says each tree on his farm takes approximately eight years to grow and is shipped from Oregon and North Carolina, but not without extra cost.
“They’ve been going up because everything cost more these days,” Murphy said. “Fertilizer. Everything.”
Christmas Tree fertilizer bags have gone up $10-$15 per bag, costing tree farmers thousands of dollars. Murphy says it’s a trickle-down effect causing the cost of Christmas Trees to increase nearly 5 percent, but he absorbs the cost instead of passing it along to his customers.
“I just keep it low because I’m on the poor side of town,” Murphy said. “I like to sell them cheap because a lot of people need money to feed their families, or to buy gifts.”