LAFAYETTE — When it comes to Christmas, we donate food and toys to the needy, but one Christmas necessity can be harder to come by - the perfect tree.

According to the National Christmas Tree Association, in 2018 the average cost for a real tree was $78.00 and for an artificial one, $104.00. Several national organizations try to help relieve families of these cost, but groups like The Christmas Tree Project receive 17,000 requests and are unable to fulfill them all.

Days away from Christmas, several families in Acadiana are at home tonight decorating their real Christmas tree after Pollard's Riversbend Farm donated some fresh holiday cheer. All day Saturday families visited the lot and searched for the perfect tree.

It didn't take 4-year-old Bryce Brasket very long to find the one. He and his mother Khouri Frisch walked through rows of trees, smelling and touching each one.

"It's a really good one, I think we're going to come back and do it next year," Frisch said.

After being laid off and recently re-entering the job force, having a tree isn't something Frisch was sure would happen.

"It's been a really hard process getting back into the job force, but we finally got a decent job, so we started back up," Frisch explained.

Soon their new tree will light up their living room, something Frisch is looking forward to.

"We got one step down," added Frisch, "That was the biggest thing, we didn't have a tree. Christmas isn't the same without a tree."

Pollard's is closing for the season this weekend. The trees that didn't make it into a home will go to the Cameron Parish Shoreline Restoration project. which is eroding at a rate 5 to 30 feet per year. The trees will help slow the erosion process.