Inflation has increased the cost of Christmas trees in Windsor-Essex

Buyers of real Christmas trees can expect to pay a little more due to a number of inflationary issues.

"It's not great, but you gotta do it for the tradition," said Ryan Little, who was out cutting a tree with his wife Laila and daughter Olivia at Bastien's Tree Farm in Essex.

Choosing to cut down your own tree could be one way to knock down costs as tree farms across Windsor-Essex bump up prices to deal with rising costs of shipping and growing the holiday staple.

Randy Carrick, of Carrick's Garden Centre in LaSalle, is selling trucked in fraser firs for $80 this year compared to $70 last year due to delivery costs from a tree farm in Chatham-Kent.

"The price of diesel fuel has gone crazy, so all these companies are tacking on extra freight charges," said Carrick, adding he has kept his prices lower than some places where the same tree could cost as high as $150.

Carrick said buyers are still coming in despite the hike. He says he has 500 trees and so supply is not the same issue as it is in some parts of the country.

Back at the Bastien Tree Farm, it's $5 cheaper to cut your own 6 to 6.5 foot high fir. But that's still five dollars more than last year.

"The fertilizers and sprays went up quite a bit. Fertilizer almost doubled this year," said owner Ovid Bastien.

Bastien says he is trying to keep costs down as much as possible and not taking advantage of market values for trees.

"I want to keep it to what it cost us to produce a tree," said Bastien.

The rising costs have been seen across the country. 

"On average across Canada, you're going to see about a 10 per cent increase, and that is solely because of the expenses that it's costing the farm," said Shirley Brennan, executive director of the Canadian Christmas Trees Association.

• Why Christmas trees are scarce and more expensive this year

People cutting their own trees at Bastien's were undeterred by the extra cost.

"Everything goes up every year, so another $5 each year isn't isn't that bad," said Tom Zanin of Windsor.

The Little family said they'd pay the extra few bucks to keep a holiday tradition going. 

But both aren't sure they would pay $100 for a real tree if prices rose that high.

Bastien and Carrick say this weekend will be the real test because it is traditionally the weekend where sales pick up.