One of the best parts of Christmastime in New York City is being enveloped in the festive scent of pine as you walk past Christmas tree vendors on the sidewalk. These stands of fluffy evergreens signal that the holiday season has arrived...but they were almost outlawed!
Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia notoriously disliked street vendors clogging up New York City's roadways. During the early years of his mayoral term, which coincided with the Great Depression, there was a proliferation of unlicensed pushcart vendors as out-of-work New Yorkers tried to make ends meet by selling vegetables, fruits, meats, and other goods on the streets (and skirting pushcart permit fees). Declaring pushcarts "a menace to traffic, health, and sanitation," LaGuardia made it his mission to get those vendors off the streets.
LaGuardia used WPA funds to construct indoor retail markets, such as the Essex Street Market and Arthur Avenue Market, where vendors could sell their wares in a new, clean environment, and leave the streets open for traffic. Along with the opening of those municipal markets came an ordinance that banned all unlicensed pushcarts from operating on the streets...including vendors selling Christmas trees!
The public (and the tree vendors) did not like this. How would New Yorkers get their trees for the holiday season?! In response to the ill-advised ban, the City Council passed an exemption to LaGuardia's pushcart ordinance, overriding the mayor's veto.
Dubbed the "coniferous tree exception," the law specifically allowed Christmas tree vendors to operate their stalls on the street without a license, but only in December. That law is still on the books today! It's NYC Admin Code Sec. 19-136 (a)(4).
The law states that "storekeepers and peddlers may sell and display coniferous trees during the month of December and palm branches, myrtle branches, willow branches, and citron during the months of September and October on a sidewalk." The caveats are that the seller must have "permission of the owner of the premises fronting on such sidewalk," and must keep a clear passageway for "the free movement of pedestrians."
So it's thanks to an obscure Depression-era law that we get to enjoy the refreshing aroma of Christmas trees as we stroll the city streets every holiday season!
