BALLWIN, Mo. – As families get into the holiday spirit by picking out a Christmas tree, a local tree farm has noticed a shortage of trees this year.

On Monday, families visited the Sullivan Farms tree lot in Ballwin to make memories.

“I just grew up having real trees. So it’s fun. It makes the house smell good,” Payton Seevers said.

The lot is full of trees. Back at the warehouse, trees are stacked up and ready to be dropped off at the lot.

“We get our trees from all over. Michigan, North Carolina, upstate New York, balsams come from Nova Scotia, Canada, and we get our nobles, which we just got today, that come from Washington state,” said Lynn Sullivan, owner of Sullivan Farms.

This is Sullivan’s 33rd year selling Christmas trees. He said thousands of trees are coming in this time of year, but he’s also noticed an increase in wholesalers looking for trees too.

“We’re selling even wholesale trees to people in Oklahoma, Kansas, southern Missouri, and Illinois because they’ve tried to get trees,” he said. “Even somebody flew in from Florida, rented a U-Haul, and took them back to Florida because they couldn’t find trees nowhere.”

Sullivan said he’s able to keep up with demand despite the shortage.

“We’re able to kind of keep up with it because I go to Michigan every year to visit tree farms, and we try to pick up new growers every year where we can,” he said.

Families are also buying trees earlier this year, he said.