Tuesday, October 22, 2013

The Tree Business

As Christmas season is approaching now in Germany......there are a variety of topics which come up within German society.  One of the topics....is the price of Christmas Trees.

The local newspaper....Wiesbaden Kurier....had a piece over the cost, and have calmed the nerves of most Germans by suggesting that prices will be stable this year over the cost of a normal tree.....with the exception of the Normann Fir (it went up a notch or two on price).

The general cost?  Per meter....roughly nine to fourteen Euro....for your average tree.

Germans are particular about Christmas Trees.  They'd prefer a real tree, and if it's a fake....it's mostly because there's no room in the apartment so they get a three-foot fake tree that sits on top of some table or bookcase.

There are two basic methods of procuring your tree.  First, you can go to a small village operation where the trees are still in the ground.....pay your money.....and cut it yourself.  I doubt if more than two percent of the population does it this way.  Most go down to the local grocery or sports-hall, and buy it from the tree sales guy, who then wraps it up, and the customer drives home with it on the roof on in the trunk.

As for when they buy it?  It used to be a time-honored event....where everyone got their tree about two weeks before Christmas.  It's shifted around in the last decade or two.....with a number of Germans now putting up trees in early December.

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