The tariffs that stole Christmas
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Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios
The Christmas business is typically pretty cheerful, but not this year: Companies that import and sell Christmas trees, twinkling lights and other holiday decorations say they've been hammered by tariffs.
Why it matters: You'll likely pay more for holiday supplies, and have fewer products to choose from — industry leaders are even warning about possible shortages.
- "There's no question that it will be harder to find the exact tree and decor that that you want this year, and it'll be more expensive," says Jami Warner, executive director of the American Christmas Tree Association.
Where it stands: Christmas executives (yes, that's a thing) have had to be real Scrooges since President Trump's "Liberation Day" tariffs.
- They've laid off workers, canceled or cut back imports, and raised prices to deal with higher import taxes — and they're still waiting to see where tariffs wind up.
- "It's like lack of sleep, absolute anxiety fest all the time — ulcers. I mean, it's just awful," says Jared Hendricks CEO of Village Lighting Company, which sells Christmas lighting and decorations.
Hendricks says he has a loan of about $1 million, backed by his house, that he may need to tap to pay tariffs to bring product into the country.
- Shipments are still coming overseas, delayed after he canceled everything in the wake of the 145% tariff rate that was briefly in effect on China this spring.
Catch up fast: The White House backed off triple-digit China tariffs, but they're still high at 30% — and could go higher yet.
- To afford these fees, companies are importing less. "Everyone is ordering less," says Dan Casterella, CEO of American Christmas, a holiday decorating business (they do Rockefeller Center and other major displays).
- "I'm getting emails weekly from factories in China with people who have canceled orders or companies that have gone out of business asking us to buy product," he says, noting that he has let go 20% of his full-time staff, about 100 people, to make up for tariff costs.
By the numbers: Prices overall for Christmas decor could be 15 to 20% higher, according to interviews with executives in the industry and the American Christmas Tree Association.
- Certain items might be harder to find.
- "There are whole categories of trees that we may not have, or we have really small quantities of," says Mac Harman, founder of Balsam Hill, which primarily sells artificial trees. "Eventually, we'll get to a point where we may not have any trees."
The intrigue: It's not totally clear that consumers will see all these price increases.
- The smaller importers say they're being pressured to absorb much of these costs. "Our big-box customers are telling us, 'we've promised that we're not going to raise prices, so you guys have to eat it,' " Hendricks says.
Reality check: Plenty of folks have their ornaments and trees safely stored away for re-use every year.
- And beyond decor, stores will still be stocked with stuff you can buy for friends and family.
The bottom line: As we learned from Dr. Seuss, Christmas will come no matter how many ribbons, tags, boxes or bags are under the tree — that's a particularly good thing in a year when even getting that tree might be tricky.
