Amazon to Sell and Ship Live Christmas Trees

Amazon is making the holiday season more convenient and easy as ever by selling and delivering [...]

Amazon is making the holiday season more convenient and easy as ever by selling and delivering fresh, full-size Christmas trees straight to your doorstep.

The shipping pros will start selling seven-foot Christmas trees (as well as wreaths and garlands) sometime in November, according to the Associated Press. Buyers can choose between Douglas firs, Norfolk Island pines and other options. A seven-foot Fraser fir, sourced from a North Carolina farm, will go for $115.

Amazon won't include water in the large box, but the online retail conglomerate said the trees will be sent within 10 days of being cut down and should survive the shipping just fine.

Some trees will even qualify for Prime free shipping, and customers will be able to choose a delivery date via pre-orders.

Last year, Amazon sold smaller Christmas trees (shorter than 3 feet), while other merchants sold bigger ones using the Amazon platform — but this is the first year Amazon will sell larger trees itself.

"Given the popularity among customers, we increased the assortment," the company said.

An Amazon holiday preview book listed a $50 wreath and $25 red-leafed plant with a decorative candy cane speared into the soil, according to the AP.

But those who worry for the traditional values of picking out and chopping down their own Christmas tree shouldn't worry, since executive director of the National Christmas Tree Association, Tim O'Connor, isn't worried.

O'Connor said that picking out a tree and hauling it home is part of the fun for families who enjoy a live tree in their home every year. The association estimates that only about a 1 to 2 percent of the 27 million real Christmas trees purchased in 2017 were bought online, mostly from grower's own websites.

"It's so small, it's almost undetectable," O'Connor said.

As anyone who has paid attention to the online bookstore turned trillion-dollar company knows, however, it has a way of shaking up the way business is done.

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