People typically shop for trees that are 7 to 9 feet tall, Tantillo said, and Christmas tree growers usually operate on a “1-foot-per year” growth standard.

“So that takes seven to nine years to grow,” she said. “It’s not like it was a bad growing year this year. It’s just problems happened several years ago that made us not have as many of the tall trees.”

Missouri’s Christmas tree harvest dropped by 65 percent in 2012 compared to 10 years earlier. Illinois Christmas tree growers harvested 54 percent less, according to the most recent available data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

There’s a good reason Missouri and Illinois farmers aren’t harvesting nearly as many Christmas trees as they used to.

“Between the year 2000 and 2011 there was a significant number of farms that went out of business because Christmas tree farming is done by an older generation,” said Steve Meier, a Christmas tree farmer and president of the Missouri Christmas Tree Association. “And the younger generation is not being involved as heartily as in the past. So a lot of farms have gone out of business.”

Additionally, a drought between 2011 and 2013 affected planting, which Meier and other farmers are feeling now.