In Canada, we not only love our Christmas trees, but we love to give them away too! Here are some facts about Christmas trees that you may not have known before. And once you do, you may just be surprised at how many Christmas trees there actually are in our great nation!
1.) Canada exported a whopping 1,738,212 fresh-cut Christmas trees last year.
Of this number, nearly half of them come from Quebec. The provinces of Saskatchewan, Alberta, and Newfoundland however, didn’t contribute one tree to that number.
2.) Total sales for fresh-cut Christmas trees in Canada last year was $51.3 million.
Canadians might be getting tired of the smell (and maintenance involved) that comes with a fresh-cut tree. While this number may seem large, sales were down in every province last year with the only exception being British Columbia. In all, sales fell 9 per cent last year and have dropped 22 per cent since 2006.
3.) Canada imported $47 million worth of artificial trees last year.
While most of that number ($46 million) came from China, Thailand, the United States, Mexico, and Vietnam also sent us bundles of fake green.
4.) We exported $28.2 million worth of real Christmas trees.
While most of those went to the United States ($25.8 million,) we also sent trees to Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, Cuba, France, Jamaica, Netherlands Antilles, Panama, Thailand, Venezuela, and the United Arab Emirates.
5.) We imported $5 million worth of fresh-cut trees from the U.S. last year.
6.) Canada has 2,381 Christmas tree farms.
With the number of people buying fresh-cut trees declining, it’s not surprising to see that this number is also falling – and has been since 2006, the same year we started seeing a drop in fresh-cut sales. In all of Canada Ontario has the most Christmas tree farms,with 647.
7.) The average Christmas tree farm in Canada consists of 28,315 hectares.
Not surprisingly, since they export the highest amount of fresh-cut trees, the biggest tree farms are in Quebec!
And now for the nice story….
In 1917 Nova Scotia was devastated by the Halifax Explosion, which killed 1,900 people and injured another 9,000. Needing relief and support from around the country and around the globe, Boston responders were the first on the scene the day after the explosion happened. It was these responders that also stayed until everyone else had gone, and they were sure that the residents of Nova Scotia would be okay.
The following Christmas in 1918, Nova Scotia sent a Christmas tree to the City of Boston to thank them for their outpouring of help and support when they needed it most. The tree was given as a gift every year for several years, but eventually fell out of practice.
In 1971, the practice was picked back up and Boston started receiving a Christmas tree from Nova Scotia every year once again. This year the tree was a 70-year-old, 15 metre white spruce harvested from Jordan Bay in Shelburne, Nova Scotia. Once it arrived in Boston it was escorted to the Boston Common by the Boston Police Department. It took the main stage of the annual tree-lighting event, an event that draws about 30,000 people each year.
