Sunday, December 20, 2020

O Christmas trees!

The Tree Riders wrapped up their 10th season of selling Christmas trees outside St. Mark's Church-in-the-Bowery on Second Avenue yesterday afternoon. 

As noted yesterday morning, they only had 16 trees left... and they went quickly. 

One Tree Rider said that they sold more trees in 2020 than in previous years... citing fewer tree stands this year and a demand for live trees from homebound residents who were celebrating the holiday sooner in such an awful year.  

Christmas trees — along with wreaths, lights and other decor — are in high demand this year as many Americans embrace holiday festivity in the face of rising coronavirus cases and bleak predictions for the winter months.
Key Food on Avenue A at Fourth Street also sold out yesterday... ditto for the Bueno East Mart down the block at Third Street...
The stand on 14th Street at First Avenue allegedly sold out last weekend ... while Greg's on East Houston at Essex has two rather spindly trees left as of 8:30 a.m. today ...
Yuletide procrastinators may still be able to nab a free tree that has already been discarded... Vinny & O spotted this one yesterday on First Avenue at Second Street... perhaps left behind by someone who is traveling for the holidays...
at

2 comments:

  1. GiovanniDecember 20, 2020 at 2:04 PM

    I finally got the perfect tree after looking around for several days across several neighborhoods. There are still trees up in Kips Bay and the West Village for some reason but almost nothing in the EV. The tree I found is fresh, full, round 7 footer. It was hidden behind a bunch of spindly looking trees and was still wrapped up so no one had noticed it. I even wore the guy down the hustling tree seller who had a thick Queens accent and got it for a decent price, which are sky high this year.

    Many stands are are selling the scrawniest looking trees ever, and since decent trees are hard to find they are selling out too. One guy told me the skinny trees are really popular because people’s apartments are so small that they have no room for a bigger tree. Over in the West Village it’s still the giant 15-20 foot trees that are popular, and those can go for $2,000 and up.

    Usually there are many abandoned Christmas trees on the street by this time, but not this year, I suppose that people are snapping them up as soon as thy are tossed out. There is also a trans homeless person with a shopping cart at Union Square selling trees she has found in the trash, so if worse comes to worse and you cant find a tree, go find her.

    ReplyDelete
  2. SarahDecember 21, 2020 at 4:10 PM

    There were still trees over at Lafayette and Kenmare on Friday, at least. Had to settle for a shorty but it's better than nothing. Surprised at how much getting a tree perked up my spirits; with no holiday guests this year, I was considering not bothering.

    ReplyDelete

Your remarks and lively debates are welcome, whether supportive or critical of the views herein. Your articulate, well-informed remarks that are relevant to an article are welcome.

However, commentary that is intended to "flame" or attack, that contains violence, racist comments and potential libel will not be published. Facts are helpful.

If you'd like to make personal attacks and libelous claims against people and businesses, then you may do so on your own social media accounts. Also, comments predicting when a new business will close ("I give it six weeks") will not be approved.