BUFFALO, N.Y. — The days right after Thanksgiving are often the most popular to get a Christmas tree.
"We were open last weekend. Off to a very strong start. It seems like more and more people wanna come out earlier for their trees," said Jeffrey Jurek, the manager at Jurek Plantations.
Luckily at the Jurek's location in Clarence, they have enough trees to account for all those shoppers.
"We've been planting more and more trees every single year," Jeffrey Jurek said.
But that's certainly not the case everywhere. We've all seen the stories about this year's so-called Christmas tree shortage, a problem that dates back more than a decade.
"A lot of the big wholesale growers got caught with a glut of trees and they wound up losing money," said Jerome Saab, the president of WNY Christmas Tree Farmers.
As a result, Saab says many of those farms, typically on the West Coast or in North Carolina or Michigan, stopped growing as many trees or closed up shop during the recession.
"It takes a long time to grow a Christmas tree so if you're looking at a seven to eight-foot tree, it's roughly 10 years. So that's why you're seeing the stories circulating now," said Steve Jurek, a third-generation of owner Jurek Plantations.
So will Western New Yorkers be impacted by the shortage? If you buy from a local grower, probably not.
But you may notice a difference at garden centers or big box stores.
"The law of supply and demand has caused the wholesale trees' prices to go up which is reflected in the retail prices," Saab said.
But just to be safe, area farmers suggest you buy your tree early and shop local for the best selection.
"We have a lot of loyal customers, people that have come to us for 30, 40 years. A lot of older people come in and say, 'I remember when my children were this small and we came down here and did this,' and they're still doing it. It's really nice to see that," Steve Jurek added.