Thank a Farmer For Your Christmas Tree

I am a farmer and I raise cattle and corn. Last year, I met a Christmas Tree farmer from Michigan. She wasn't too much older than me and I thought that has got to be a pretty cool job.

Unfortunately, this year this is no live Christmas tree in the Blin house. We leave for Canada on Friday for Christmas, and we were afraid that our poor Christmas tree might a little dry and crispy by the time we got home. So, this year it is Mr. Plastic tree, covered in lights and love.

Now back to the farmer and their Christmas trees. Yesterday, I read 7 Things You Don't Know About the Surprisingly Huge Christmas Tree Business. Yes, I was shocked to learn that the Christmas tree business employes 100,000 (most part-time) workers. And I had no idea that the Christmas tree business generated more than $1 billion annual (compare that to the $600 billion we spend on holiday shopping).

However, this is the fact that I thought was the coolest because it relates directly to me.

"There are 15,000 Christmas tree farms in America, upon which  350 million trees grow on 350,000 acres of land. To put that in perspective, the U.S. harvests 84 million acres of corn each year, 9.5 billion acres of cotton, and 345,950 acres of apple trees."

That is a lot of Christmas cheer. What is in your house? Real or fake? Or maybe you have some other Christmas tradition?