This year, it may not be the Grinch who threatens to steal Christmas.

It could be tariffs.

By some estimates, almost 90% of Christmas decorations and artificial Christmas trees are made in China and subject to President Trump's tariffs.

According to an analysis by a lending tree, if this year's tariffs were in place last year, it would have increased

consumer costs by $28 billion.

That's about $130 per shopper.

Nathan Gordon is president of Christmas Central and online retailer of seasonal products.

Mr. Gordon, what effect are you seeing of the tariffs in your business?

Well, first and foremost, we're seeing prices are up across the board, and our company's doing the best we can to mitigate those prices. But we're also seeing almost a tale of two different

economies here, where the higher-end spenders and higher-end items are selling at their normal pace.

And then we're seeing almost a drop in sales of the middle-tier products and seeing people

shift to the lower-end products.

You say you're trying to mitigate these higher prices or higher costs.

What are you doing?

Well, over the past summer, we have found ways to be more efficient in our operations so we could pass those savings

onto the consumer. And then ultimately, our company is trying to just absorb as much of them as we can.

Now, some retailers had stockpiled inventory before inauguration day.

Were you able to do that? We did about as much as we can, but we're not a big box retailer.

We are still a family-owned business, so we don't have as deep of pockets as the big box retailers

to bring in that sheer amount of goods and have them sit

for nine, ten, eleven months. You talked about sort of the two tiers of customers you're

seeing. A lot of polls showing people worried about affordability, worried about high prices.

...