Santa Claus may bring toys to children all over the world, but we can’t forget about Santa’s busiest helpers, professional truck drivers. They travel from coast to coast delivering all sorts of holiday goods from toys and gifts to food and Christmas trees. This year, combining USPS, UPS, FedEx, Amazon, and more carriers will deliver close to 1 billion packages, Christmas cards, and holiday goods to homes in the United States. Drivers work extra hard during the time leading up to the holidays to ensure that families across the world have all they need to celebrate with their loved ones.
Christmas trees are a symbol of cheer and festivity in people’s homes at Christmas time. Since we can’t all be Clark Griswold and chop down a tree in the woods or our front yard, we rely on local Christmas tree farms or pop-up stands selling anything from Balsam Fur to Spruce and every type of tree in between. We can count on drivers to get the trees to their home for the holidays. Each year, 73 million Christmas trees are planted across the United States. 25-30 million trees are delivered across the nation in preparation for the holidays.
It’s not just household Christmas trees that get hauled. Each year trees that seem to reach the clouds are selected and put on display for the masses in cities across the United States, and the world. The most noteworthy Christmas trees seen by travelers are The Capital and The White House Christmas Trees in Washington, D.C., and The Rockefeller Christmas Tree in New York City, to name a few. The trees are specially selected before being cut down and hauled where they are decorated and put on display throughout the holiday season.
While the National Christmas Tree is the same tree each year, the Capitol and Rockefeller trees make quite the journey. This year’s Capitol Christmas Tree, which is seen on the West Lawn of the Capitol Building, was selected from the Monongahela National Forest in West Virginia. The 63-feet tall Norway Spruce was hauled 1,000 miles to the Nation’s Capital making stops in communities throughout West Virginia along the way spreading holiday cheer. The Rockefeller Tree, chosen from Vestal, New York, is an 80-feet tall Norway Spruce that made a rather short 186-mile drive to Rockefeller Center. The tree gets bows and special signage placed over it as it is hauled to New York City.
Beyond drivers’ busy delivery routes and pick up and drop offs, many drivers also donate their time, truck, and fuel to help bring wreaths to cemeteries to lay at Veterans graves. What started as placing left over wreaths at Arlington National Cemetery one Christmas has turned into “Wreaths Across America Day.” December 16, 2023, was National Wreaths Across America Day; with the help of over 60,000 volunteers and 390 truck carriers, more than 2.7 million wreaths are placed throughout 3.072 participating locations. The route from Harrington Maine to Arlington National Cemetery has become the “world’s largest Veterans parade.”
This holiday season as you spend time with your friends and family, we can show our appreciation for our industry’s professional drivers, without them our holiday celebrations would look a lot different.
