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(CNN) - Christmas tree sellers across the country expect an influx of new and recurring customers this holiday season after experiencing an increase in sales last year.
Industry experts say that the increase in tree purchases is mainly driven by millennials, who are establishing and forming their own families, one way or another.
Last week, the National Christmas Tree Association published the results of its latest consumer survey. The commercial group, which represents thousands of Christmas tree producers across the country, hired researchers from Nielsen / Harris to interview 2,020 American adults last January, just as the Christmas season ended.
His study found a 20% increase in the purchase of real Christmas trees, evergreens, and a 12% increase in purchases of artificial trees in 2018.
The association's study found that last year American adults bought about 5.4 million more real Christmas trees and 2.5 million more artificial trees than in 2017. NCTA's seasonal spokesman Doug Hundley said that Most of these new purchases were made by millennials, adults born in the early 80s and mid 90s.
"The millennial generation is now the age they are establishing, marrying, having children and acquiring real trees to build their own family traditions," Hundley told CNN Business. "We've been watching that demographic for some time and we hope this happens."
The NCTA competitor is the American Christmas Tree Association, which represents the nation's artificial tree producers, and whose members have also experienced an increase in sales in recent years. ACTA Executive Director Jami Warner attributes the increase to the best economic conditions.
The Christmas tree industry saw a severe blow in 2008, the beginning of the Great Recession, when many Americans went through their own financial crises and chose not to buy any trees.
Now, more than a decade later, many Americans have recovered from that recession and are even buying more than one tree to decorate their homes, according to Warner, who said millennials seem to be behind the Christmas tree's rebirth.
"We agree with that," Warner told CNN Business. “What we don't agree with is that millennials are buying more real trees. They are buying real and artificial trees. They are buying more trees, period. ”
While millennials are less likely to have a home than those of generation X and baby boomers at the same age, Jessica Lautz, vice president of demography and behavioral knowledge for the National Association of Realtors, said that The real estate industry has experienced a recent increase in such homebuyers. These young adults accounted for 37% of homebuyers in 2018, the largest group of homebuyers last year, according to a NAR study published in April.
Lautz said that millennial homebuyers are less likely to form "traditional" nuclear families than previous generations. Many are married couples with children, but others are young couples with pets. Some are friends or just roommates who prioritize owning a home instead of paying rent.
But what most of them have in common, he said, is a generational obsession to share photos on social networks. "It's not an exaggeration for me to see that they want a Christmas tree to put on Instagram for themselves or their families," Lautz said.
Christmas treemillennials