If you haven't bought your Christmas tree yet, good luck.

This year's supply of Christmas trees is running low, as several major O'ahu retailers sold out over the weekend.

Daiei, City Mill, Kmart, Wal-Mart and Lowe's Home Improvement Warehouse said yesterday they were out of Christmas trees and won't be getting any more.

"We probably just have a couple of Charlie Browns, but that's it," said City Mill vice president Carol Ai May. "We're out at all stores."

Hawai'i retailers always seem to have difficulty judging the market for Christmas trees. In 2003, there was a glut and some retailers sold them for as little as $1. Last year, most stores had the opposite problem and ran out a couple of weeks before Christmas. Some vendors resorted to flying trees in to meet demand.

This year appears to be shaping up for a repeat of 2004, even though several stores said they ordered more than last year.

As of yesterday afternoon, Home Depot's stores in Honolulu, Pearl City and Kapolei still had trees, although workers there expected them to be gone by the end of today. The Pearl City Home Depot reported having about 200 to 300 trees left, while the Kapolei location said they had up to 60 noble firs.

"I think we had about 400 more (trees) this year than last year," said Robert Kehne, manager of Home Depot in Pearl City. "We might get through today or tomorrow. I think the panic will then start. Over the weekend we got about 2,000 calls asking for trees. It was amazing. I hear from a lot of customers that everyone else is out already."

Home Depot in Honolulu had just unloaded its last container of trees yesterday, and they were going fast.

City Mill general manager Kirk Knapp said the company ordered "maybe a tad bit more" than last year, but sales were faster than expected.

"You kind of plan on being out by, let's say, the 17th — the week before Christmas," Knapp said.

Anne Hernandez and her family were among the dozens of people who bought Christmas trees at the Honolulu Home Depot yesterday afternoon. The 47-year-old lab technician from Kailua said a few other places she looked at were either too expensive or sold out.

"We like to buy it late on purpose because they get brown and dry out," she said. "But I think maybe next year we might go a little earlier."

It's "really, really, really super duper important" that the family get a tree, she said, adding that her 8-year-old son cried at the thought of not having a real tree. "It's just traditional. We've always done that."

Penny Funakoshi was relieved to find a tree at Home Depot after checking four places that were sold out.

"I went, 'Oh, my God, we're going to have to get a fake tree,' which we've never done before," said Funakoshi, a 39-year-old sales administrator. She said she was "definitely relieved" that she was able to buy a tree.

Richard Tajiri of Christmas Hawai'i, who sells trees in the Ala Moana parking lot, said yesterday he had about a half dozen green noble firs and another half dozen flocked trees.

Tajiri said last year he ran out of trees on Dec. 9, so he brought in 400 more trees this year.

"I could have used some more," he said, adding that he will bring in more trees, especially smaller sizes, next year.

Reach Lynda Arakawa at larakawa@honoluluadvertiser.com.