There has been an increase in demand for Christmas trees across the country this year, and the Estevan Kinsmen Club’s Christmas tree lot certainly wasn’t an exception.
The tree lot was located at the Estevan Canadian Tire from Nov. 23-Dec. 4. It took 12 days for more than 180 trees available to be sold.
Bret Beal from the Kinsemn Club said he wasn’t surprised with how quickly the trees sold out this year.
“With COVID, there was a lot of people who decided not to leave Estevan, so there’s a lot of households who usually aren’t home, but they decided to stay home this year,” said Beal. “So the input that I got from a lot of people was this year was the year to get a real tree.”
While it would have been nice to have more trees, because they would have been able to satisfy more people, the Kinsmen also didn’t know what to expect for this year.
“The supply wasn’t there,” said Beal. “We couldn’t order more if we wanted to. Because of the order that we did place, our supplier actually wasn’t able to fulfill orders for other communities around here.”
It’s also nice that they sold out, rather than having a lot of really nice Christmas trees that didn’t get sold.
Beal was pleased with the quality of this year’s trees.
“The Frasers are a very beautiful colour. The big ones went relatively fast, which, in previous years, the big trees are the last ones to go,” said Beal. “It was kind of interesting to see the difference between this year and the last couple of years where usually the four to six-foot trees sell out first, and then you’re left with a couple of 12-footers or even a 14-footer at the end of the year,” said Beal.
Customers were really into the Christmas spirit, too. The Kinsmen saw a lot of young families with their kids, which made this year even more enjoyable.
“A lot of the parents said ‘Pick out a tree, pick out any tree.’ And some of the kids would pick out the big ones, and some of the kids were wanting the little Charlie Brown style Christmas tree, so it was neat to see.”
The money raised through the Christmas tree sales will stay in the community. The Kinsmen have a high standard for the park they support in the Hillside subdivision, and they have committed to a couple of project at the Estevan Comprehensive School.
“Serving the community’s greatest needs is where the money is going to go,” said Beal.
