Buy plastic

Worth every penny

Ever (more) green

This nice 12-ft. tree can be yours for only $400!

BY RACHEL SCHEIER, ADAM PLAYFORD
and JORDAN LITE
DAILY NEWS WRITERS

The age of the $400 Christmas tree has arrived.

New York - home to the $100 hamburger and the $1 million studio apartment - now boasts streetcorner fir trees that cost a small fortune.

Some shoppers reacted to the high price of the tallest trees with sticker shock, others with sighs of resignation.

"This is New York," shrugged Kevin Cruse, who was hunting for evergreens on the upper East Side with his sons Devin, 5, and Taylor, 1.

"If you can fit a 12-foot tree in your apartment, you can afford it," said Cruse, who snagged a 7-foot specimen for a bargain $100.

At the Chelsea Garden Center in Manhattan, the biggest tree, a 10-footer, was going for $395, up 5% from last year, workers said.

On the corner of Greenwich Ave. and Chambers St. in Tribeca, a vendor quoted a price of $400 for a 12-foot-plus Canadian balsam.

Tree sellers say they're not being Grinchy. Prices are high because the cost of fuel used to truck in the trees from Canada is skyrocketing and the Canadian dollar is strong.

"People think, 'These guys spend $5 on a tree and make $100,' and it's not true," said Scott Gartland, manager of the Tribeca lot.

"You can do the math of how much money I'm not making."

Gartland insisted his prices have held steady in the 10 years he's run the stand, despite the $3-a-gallon diesel fuel he uses to run a generator.

Who the fuck would spend $400?

Buy a fucking plastic tree and be done with it.

I have been tortured by live trees because my sister loved live trees.

Two tweener kids later, it's plastic.

Fuck real trees.