Ghosts for now, trees soon

So, tomorrow is November 1. We're officially 55 days away from Christmas. Some interesting things came up this week and I wanted to post them before going trick or treating with my nieces tonight.

First, the Trees for Troops program just received a major award for community projects which Advance America from American Society of Association Executives at their annual convention. They produced a short video outlining the program. We posted it on our You Tube page...please go have a look http://www.youtube.com/RealTrees .

This tidbit made me sad.....NOT! Apparently fake tree factories in China are facing fewer orders and tough financial times. AWWWWWW. This article at Report on Business dot com http://www.globeinvestor.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20081023.wibchina24/GIStory/
included this quote:
"U.S. clients are asking for cheaper Christmas trees this year, he said. But his company is squeezed between its falling revenue and rising costs, slashing its profit to 10 to 15 per cent from more than 20 per cent in the past. Its work force has fallen 15 per cent and overtime is sharply down."

In a related topic, I had several inquiries this week from business reporters asking about prices of trees and effect of economy on purchases of the real thing, farm-grown fresh Christmas trees. Here's what I tell them: people in the business on the retail lot end will say that economy doesn't really have that much impact on tree purchases because people will not sacrifice such an important tradition no matter how tight their budget may be. We also know that no matter what the state of the economy, tree prices always vary by a great deal based on many, many factors. No matter what, you can probably go just about anywhere in the U.S. and find farm-grown trees ranging from $15 up to $200. I always tell people, if price is your #1 determining factor, then shop around.

If you see any news reports claiming that "trees will cost $_____ this year...blah blah" just ignore them. Nobody can predict what price tags will be on trees.

And finally, I caught this silly fake tree guy from some company called Christmas Central dot com paying for "news" releases this week, then posting the same drivel at bloggeron dot net. I say drivel very dirisively because it is filled with nothing but lies and misinformation. This is nothing new of course, fake tree people have been lying about their product and farm-grown trees for years in order to get people to buy their stuff.

Next week, we'll start doing more regular posts. And we'll start with some new data from the National Fire Protection Association's report on home fires involving Christmas trees.

For now, Happy Halloween!