Business

How The Grinch Is Hitting You With A Christmas Tree Fee

Ben Smith Contributor
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It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, and the regulation Grinch is making its way towards that freshly cut Fir of yours.

The Christmas tree fee* is a 15-cent charge tacked onto any tree sold in or imported into the United States, according to The Wall Street Journal. The fee’s intent is to fund a national advertising campaign to help struggling tree farmers across the country. Farmers and supporters argue the fee will lessen the massive advertising advantage the artificial tree industry currently holds.

Real tree use has plummeted over the last half century, according to the article, by 65 percent, while artificial trees have jumped by 655 percent. The U.S. Department of Agriculture agreed to prop up the struggling tree industry, and slid the charge into the American public’s stocking, just in time for the season to start.

“It is an inappropriate use of funds,” The Heritage Foundation said in a comment on the regulation while implementation was discussed. “In short, sales of fresh Christmas trees are down, because some Americans have individually decided to buy an artificial tree or not to have a tree…The Federal Government should not intervene…”

Some did applaud the decision. The president of the North Carolina Christmas Tree Association also commented on the regulation, stating that, “The real Christmas tree industry desperately needs this for research and marketing purposes to spread the message about the environmental advantages of a real Christmas tree and to help save our family farms and our farm heritage.”

The regulation, which was originally put on hold, was allowed to start after the president signed the 900-page farm bill in February.

*Update: A USDA spokesman contacted TheDC with the following statement:

“Like similar marketing programs requested by other agriculture industries, this program will be run by a board of Christmas tree industry representatives exclusively with Christmas tree industry funds, not tax dollars. However that board has not been appointed yet and as such assessments are not being collected this year.”