COLUMBIA, S.C. — Looking for a real tree for Christmas?
Some families are having issues finding the perfect tree, with an affordable price tag.
It's because tree farms are seeing a supply shortage.
"I mean when you are out of trees a week after Thanksgiving and Christmas is still three weeks away, a lot of folks don't want to buy their trees until then," says Bill Ligon, co-owner of Christmas Tree Patch in Elgin.
He's not the only Christmas tree lot struggling with the storage.
Hinson Christmas Trees announced on Facebook in October, after almost 20 years of selling Christmas trees, they wouldn't be able to open due to the lack of product from their farmers.
"Oh, it's been tough...they made a decision that they could not cut any 5-6 foot tall trees this year and that's probably our number two seller and we had to make a decision not to sell trees this year," says owner Will Hinson.
Leaving shoppers struggling to find the perfect fir tree right after the Thanksgiving weekend.
"This is our second day looking for trees, we looked at another store last night we went by there and I think they had 5 left, and so we decided to come here and look at what they had we've noticed the trees are not as plentiful," says John Potter an Elgin resident.
The low number of trees has been a trend for several years says Mitch Minford.
His family owns Sugarmountain Frasier Fur Tree Farm based in North Carolina, his family comes down each year to the Columbia area to sell their trees.
He says while those are seeing a shortage in the holiday tree, this isn't the first year and it won't be the last.
"About four or five years ago there was a shortage due to a lack of planting," Minford says.
The lack of planting came from the recession of '08 when many farmers decided to not plant as many trees as they usually do, which trickled down to a lack of trees seven years later.
Now the shortage continues as the newer trees planted after the recession have not grown to their full potential.
Minford adds due to the demand in recent years, there has been an increase in planting, which he says people will see trickle down to product catching up in a few years.