“It’s an added attraction for us,” Dabney said. “There’s very good customer service.”

Beginning the day after Thanksgiving, many tree lots and tree farms open to the public, bringing joy to the eyes of children and the scent of pine and fir to homes in the community.

Trees at his lot range in price anywhere from $10 for a “table top,” a small tree only a few feet in height, to $120 for a premium 6- to 7-foot Fraser fir, which Schneider calls “the Cadillac of Christmas trees.”

“We sell a lot of tabletops to students,” Schneider said. “They smuggle them into their dorm room.”

Marsha Gray, executive director of the Michigan Christmas Tree Association, said tabletop trees are a growing market in recent years.

“You still have a nice, fresh tree, but you have room to put it up,” Gray said.

Schneider said the most affordable full tree is the Scotch pine, at around $40 for a 6-foot tree.

“That’s the traditional grandfather tree from 100 years ago,” he said.

Yet, with Michigan’s ailing economy, rising labor costs due to an increase in the minimum wage and escalating gas prices, the trees local families find this year might be slightly more expensive.

“Growers increased prices 3 to 5 percent to cover costs,” said Jill O’Donnell, the statewide Christmas tree agent with the MSU Extension.

Still, O’Donnell said she doesn’t see this effecting the consumer too heavily.

“I think that if you look at retail lots, you won’t find a large increase in prices, maybe 5 to 10 percent,” she said.

Schneider said the tree is less about the price and more about the experience.

“(The parents) buy it for the kids. Once they put the lights on, the kid is as happy with a Charlie Brown tree as with a White Hills tree,” he said.

Mel Koelling, an MSU forestry professor and owner of Tannenbaum Farms in Mason, said the increase in prices are mostly due to the inflation rate.

“Christmas trees are pretty much independent of economic factors,” he said.

This year’s unusually dry summer caused a lot of agony for tree growers, especially in drought-ridden Southeastern states where Christmas trees are a big crop in mountainous regions.

Koelling said his “choose and cut” farm, which allows customers to pick out and saw down their own tree, lost about 20 percent of its young crop — even with an irrigation system and ardent watering. But because of the seven to eight years it takes to raise a full-grown tree, the market will be able to catch up down the road, Koelling said.

“‘Choose and cut’ farms offer a wider range of prices,” he said. “We also promote the experience of the family going out to cut the tree.”

Koelling said nearly one-third of the natural trees sold in the U.S. come from “choose and cut” farms.

Though many outside factors may change annually, prices of trees are driven by different factors. According to O’Donnell, trees are priced based on various factors, including species, grade and the distance it was shipped.

Each tree species is graded on height, shape, appearance, holes or damage from insect or disease, density and straightness of the trunk.

Larger retail companies that sell trees for less often buy second grade trees, Koelling said. Higher-end trees not found on farms are often found at places associated with nurseries or landscaping.

Gray said the only noticeable difference in price will be on the Southern states due to shipping costs.

“We’re lucky we live in Christmas tree country,” Gray said.