This is not Charlie Brown’s Christmas tree.
A 13-and-1/2-foot-tall Fraser fir is being peddled on a Kips Bay sidewalk for $1,750 – the most expensive holiday tree found in the Big Apple by The Post.
While the Quebec import will probably be purchased by a socialite for their Park Avenue salon without a second glance, the eye-popping price does highlight towering inflation in the prices of staples this holiday season.
The seller, George Smith, says he was forced to hike his tree prices by $5 per foot this year – and even more for trees taller than 10 feet.
“Big trees are crazy right now. It’s a whole different market . . . because they’re in short supply and you can’t get them,” said Smith, adding that a 10-foot tree that went for $350 last year goes for $550 now.
He also blamed the big Grinch in the White House.
“Everything is up, minimum wage is up, everything is hitting at one time, so [people] are paying more” for trees, he said. “I hate Bidenomics, but it is what it is.”
Smith gave longtime customer Pattie Briggs a “great deal” for a 12-foot Fraser fir at $1,200 this week – but said he would’ve charged anyone else $1,600 for the same tree. And that tree would’ve gone for only $1,100 last year.
“I was thinking to myself, ‘That’s a waste of some money,” said Briggs, 61, of Jamaica, Queens. “But my mother loved Christmas . . . So I do it because it would make my mom happy, and it makes me happy too.”
The average price of a Christmas tree is up 10% this year, according to the American Christmas Tree Association.
President Biden acknowledged last week that prices across the board are still too high because of 17.4% cumulative inflation since he took office.
Even Santa Claus is worried that “egregious” tree prices will affect people’s plans for a holly, jolly Christmas.
The sky-high costs “become burdensome, obviously, for people who are trying to celebrate the holidays with a set amount of funds to buy gifts, food, to have people come over, and also for decorating,” griped Santa for-hire Dana Friedman, 64, of Kew Gardens, Queens.
“To go out and spend $350 or $550 – oh my goodness – I don’t think I would do it,” said Friedman.