The annual Sports Boosters Christmas trees sale began the weekend after Thanksgiving in the corner of the Tower Building parking lot.

The sale is a fundraiser for the Boosters and Paly’s athletic programs. Christine, a Paly parent who bought a tree at the sale, said she likes that the money from the sale goes to the athletics program.

“It was pricier than I was expecting, but I liked that it’s from the Paly lot,” she said.

Volunteers for the lot work rain or shine.

“We were here when it was raining because it’s for Paly athletics,” senior and volunteer Theresa Hart said. “It’s for our sports teams.”

However, rain, fire and drought all contributed to fewer trees for sale this year. Former Sports Boosters president and event volunteer Kristen Andersen said the supply of trees was cut short due to natural disasters earlier this year.

“We got short-shipped because they lost about a third of the crop in Southern Oregon last year during the fires and the drought,” Andersen said. “When the truck arrived, we were missing all of our tall trees.”

Despite the smaller supply, Anderson said the sale should still be a success because of presales.

“Almost half our stock were presales,” Andersen said. “By the end of the weekend, we’ll have sold close to 300 (trees).”

Andersen also said the Holiday Tree Lot is a community bonding event where alumni return to support the school.

“We see a lot of alumni families coming back to get their trees,” Andersen said. “You see a lot of families that you get to know come back year after year.”

And Christine said the cost of a real tree is worth whatever she has to pay. “It’s a bit of a struggle because a lot of people are moving to synthetics, and I understand their rationale,” Christine said. “But I just love the idea of another living thing in the house.”

The official sale ended on Dec. 6, but Andersen said Sports Boosters may sell the leftover trees on a case-by-case basis.

“We’ll open up by appointment to sell the remaining trees and then also take donations,” Andersen said. “We then take the extra trees that we have, and we give them to good causes.”