WASHINGTON — In a busy city where many residents don’t have vehicles, fewer Washingtonians have the ability to brave the elements and pick up a Christmas tree.
Now, they don’t have to. Just order it online and have it delivered to your home.
It’s Hugh Rodell’s job to anticipate Christmas tree deliveries each year. So far, maybe because of the rain, this season’s demand is the highest North Star Christmas Trees has ever seen.
“Our delivery demand has been going through the roof,” Rodell says. “We’re just about at capacity. We will sell out.”
For $135, the 40-year-old local company will bring a 7-foot tree to your home and set it up.
Christmas tree delivery is not a new service in the D.C. area, but even with its return customers, Rodell says there’s an uptick in orders this year.
“I think our price point was just about the best we could make it,” says Ben Sisko of his $100 delivery and setup fee.
Sisko started his company, DC Tree Delivery, a few months ago, not realizing the demand he’d get from eager clients.
“We had planned to sell 100 trees,” Sisko says. “At this point, we’re entirely sold out of all our trees and we have a waiting list of 100 emails sitting in our inbox now.”
Both companies donate trees to charity and say they fulfilled those promises, despite the demand that could have made them a few extra bucks.
While it’s out of trees, DC Tree Delivery isn’t done with the season. It offers a removal service.
“We’ll make sure all the needles are vacuumed,” Sisko says. “We’ll even store the stand if you have storage issues.”
It’s not the number of trees, but the delivery times themselves that limit the amount of customers for North Star Trees’ delivery.
“It usually comes down to our delivery windows available and how many trees we can get delivered and installed in one day,” Rodell says.
North Star has six retail locations and says it delivers until Christmas Eve.
It also offers wreaths and greenery for delivery.
