Importers of fresh Christmas trees have been seeing brisk sales, with some reporting they’re almost sold out already.Residents will be rockin’ around containers and stores Island-wide this weekend to pick out their tree. The first week of December is traditionally the busiest time for tree buying.This year you can expect to pay about $100 and higher for a nice-sized Fraser fir or Quebec balsam, with prices starting at around $68 for the four to six-foot trees.Importers told us they were concerned the still-struggling economy might put a damper on sales, but so far they have been holding up well.The Department of Environmental Protection said it was expecting about 13,662 Christmas trees to be imported this year- about the same as last year. And so far, no containers of trees have had to be confiscated for disease or other problems.Nurseries, supermarkets and gas stations are among those that have shipped in trees, along with more than a dozen independent vendors selling by roadsides and other locations.Sousa’s Landscape said its first container of about 400 Balsams and Frasers sold out, with most of the trees being pre-orders. But not to worry, another container full of trees will be at Sousa’s this weekend, and yet another container is arriving the week after.“Last year we had a big drop in sales compared to 2009 so were expecting the same thing this year... but we have been doing well,” said garden centre manager Lindsay Sousa.She said unlike many of the roadside vendors, Sousa’s opens up all its trees for customers, then neatly nets them, cuts the bottom off and helps tie and load them onto cars.The Bermuda Sailing Association, with the Bermuda Optimist Dinghy Association and Sandys Boat Club, has almost sold all the 1,100 trees it shipped in for its annual Christmas tree fundraiser.All of the money raised from the tree sales goes to the Bermuda Youth Sailing campaigns.Coordinator Peter Bromby said he and Lee White and other volunteers had delivered as many as 600 Balsams on Wednesday in the rain.He said there were just a few trees remaining.“That’s pretty good for this economy,” he said. “It’s a good sign.”Lindo’s supermarkets in Devonshire and Warwick also have their containers of trees out. A spokeswoman said there will be one container at each of the supermarkets with six-to-seven footers going for $95 this year.Aberfeldy Nurseries planned to bring in four containers of trees this year.“Our trees are gorgeous this year and very full,” general manager Julie Greaves said. “It was a good growing season in North Carolina. Sales are going well I would say and we have a lot of pre-orders.”She said Aberfeldy picks out the trees itself and ships them to the Island in refrigerated containers to keep them fresh. She added the trees are grown specially on tree farms and can be mulched back into the earth.At the East End, containers are available on Kindley Field Road and at the Esso near the St George’s Club.“I would say sales are just as good as last year,” said an Esso station manager. “We have been bringing in our own container for over ten years now.”* Fake or real? Tell us which you prefer in the comment section below!