Local Christmas tree farms welcome rush on Black Friday

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) - The turkey is barely even cold, but for many southern Coloradans, Thanksgiving is far in the rearview, and the focus is now on Christmas. Families flocked to Heidrich's Colorado Tree Farm and Nursery in Colorado Springs Friday, looking for their perfect tree.

The family nursery has been in business for three generations, since the late 70s, so they had the connections to stock up on trees early. That put them in a good position, considering there's currently a nationwide shortage of Christmas trees.

Heidrich's management also knew the weekend after Thanksgiving would be incredibly hectic for their employees, so they insisted they all take the previous three days off to rest up.

Many of the families shopping for a tree said they're loyal customers that head to the farm every Black Friday.

"We love using a live tree every year, we think it's awesome," said Kendall Berg, who picked out a tree with her husband and children. "It's just a fun experience for the day after Thanksgiving, to do something all together and just a little more time for us to bond. Hopefully, when our kids are older, they'll remember it too."

"I love the smell, I love the tradition," said Chris Ernest, who picked out a tree with her daughter. "I mean, I grew up cutting down our trees in California. So now that we're in Colorado, we don't have to cut any more down because they’re already cut."

Heidrich acknowledged the inflation felt around the country, has made their trees slightly more expensive. Management says the price of their most popular tree increased by about $10. However, that didn't seem to bother the dozens of families that stopped by.

“Our tree is already in the truck! We were here only two minutes before we said 'we like that tree,'" said Ernest.

Heidrich’s Colorado Tree Farm and Nursery say if you want a real Christmas tree, you better act fast. They expect all of their trees to be sold out by the first weekend in December.