Five facts to share about that tree currently ruining your living room carpet.
[mf_h2 align=”left” transform=”uppercase”]1. They Shed Like Crazy[/mf_h2]
A mature 6- to 7-foot evergreen will produce around 350,000 needles – and then leave most of them on your living room floor. But don’t worry: Scientists in the United States and Germany are working on cloning trees with retention genes to make most of those needles stay put.
[mf_h2 align=”left” transform=”uppercase”]2. There’s More Christmas Trees in America Than Americans[/mf_h2]
There are 350 million Christmas trees growing on farms in the United States. There are about 317 million Americans.
[mf_h2 align=”left” transform=”uppercase”]3. A Lot of People Work to Make Your Tree[/mf_h2]
The Christmas tree industry employs approximately 100,000 people in the United States. Holiday Tree Farms, which sold a million Christmas trees in 2012, hires 700 laborers every year at harvest time.
[mf_h2 align=”left” transform=”uppercase”]4. They Don’t Happen Overnight[/mf_h2]
It takes 8 to 12 years for a typical tree to reach harvest maturity. But Christmas trees don’t become Christmas trees without some work: To achieve that iconic conical shape, growers use a variety of shearing and pruning techniques. 
[mf_h2 align=”left” transform=”uppercase”]5. Americans Are Fans of Fakes[/mf_h2]
Americans buy between 8 and 12 million artificial trees every year; and the average family keeps theirs for 6 to 9 years.