Bradley Barnes’ best salesperson selling Christmas trees along busy Pemberton Square Boulevard this season is his 12-year-old son, Barrington.

“May we help you find a Christmas tree?” Barrington asked the first few customers to the lot his father has had the Vicksburg Optimist Club operate for the past dozen years. The club itself has sold Christmas trees in Vicksburg since 1957.

The high-pitched whirr of a chainsaw cuts the youngsters words off, as his father levels the bottom of a prized Fraser fir so it’s a perfect fit for traditional tree stands with a place for water. Afterward, Barnes, echoing many small-scale tree lot operators nationwide, points out the trees might set tree-shoppers back a bit more than at the big-box retailers — but the money stays local.

“All the money spent on trees at Home Depot or Walmart goes into their pockets or to the corporate office,” Barnes said. “We try to keep the money right here in the community.”

Sales of trees fund charitable efforts by the Optimist Club, said Leo Foster, the organization’s president, adding the message isn’t lost among those who buy trees at the lot every year. Past donations of sales have supported Warren County Children’s Shelter, Haven House, the Vicksburg Child Abuse Prevention Center and scholarships for high school seniors, among other charitable causes.

“It’s mostly people who want to donate to us because we spend that money here in Vicksburg and Warren County,” Foster said.

Small tree lots, whether open-air like the Optimist Club’s spread beside Civil War monuments or under cover of large tents in vacant commercial tracts, face price pressure this year due to higher tree prices and continued competition from retailers.

Growers in the Pacific Northwest, Appalachians and other top tree-producing areas in the U.S. expected about $20 a tree this year, though the big retailers have demanded prices remain stable. Walmart in Vicksburg had a 5-foot Fraser fir advertised at $20 outside its garden center; the 6-foot variety was shown at $29. Neither included a stand.

Independent sellers pay more for them and must charge by the foot — sometimes $10 per foot or more.

They can’t afford to put out much of a supply, so the hook is more about community support than whether to put the tree next to the living room window or not.

“We have about 200 trees this year, but we used to sell closer to 600,” Barnes said. “The stores can sell them cheaper than we can buy them.”

Selling trees in Vicksburg is virgin territory for Chris McClain, manager of a tented lot along East Clay Street that’s affiliated with Hale Fireworks, a Missouri-based fireworks retailer that operates a stand beside the Valero gas station at the Beechwood intersection.

“We try to set up where we have enough people to buy them,” McClain said, adding the 65 trees the lot began with last Monday should begin moving soon.

“I plan to have a few left by the time we set up the fireworks stand Dec. 7,” McClain said.

Market forces have been cited for a drop in trees harvested nationally, from 20.8 million in 2002 to 17.3 million in 2012, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The industry has also adjusted for larger customer groups, such as people who rent as opposed to those with space for a large tree. It’s led to smaller trees for smaller spaces, such as those that can fit a tabletop or a narrow room, according to the Missouri-based National Christmas Tree Association.