What customers actually walk through
One recording from 6 November 2026 puts it plainly: it does not really matter where your trees are located, because customers can always get to them, and they walk through the trees to do it. In that session, tree position never blocked a sale.
That is one player's experience on one build, not a documented rule, and it may change. But it removes the usual reason to design a maze: you are not building corridors for customers.
What you are building is a route for yourself. Three points on the lot matter: the receiving crate where every order lands, the register where customers pay, and the car side where trees get loaded. Anything that keeps those three short is doing real work.
Three starter layouts
Each plan below is a shape, not a grid. The lot has expandable space behind the HQ, so whatever you draw now has to survive adding ten more trees.
| Plan | Tree placement | Working space it keeps | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|---|
| Single row | One line down one side of the lot, facing the entrance | A wide open middle for walking and turning | Fewer trees visible at once; the row runs long |
| Twin rows | Two facing lines with a walking gap between them | A central lane for you and a clear back edge | Needs discipline; a stray tree in the gap closes the lane |
| L-shape | Two sides used, the corner filled | An open centre for decorating and future expansion | Empty middle looks bare until you decorate it |
A practical note on the single row: it photographs well and it makes restocking simple, because every tree is one step from the same lane. The twin rows put more trees in the same footprint but cost you a wider walking gap.
The L-shape is the one that survives expansion best. When the lot grows behind the HQ, the open centre is where the next ten trees go without redesign.
Placing and checking a layout
The world buttons for this are LAYOUT and DECORATE, both on the lot. The exact controls inside those panels — rotate, confirm, undo — were not captured in the recordings this site read, so this section stops at what was visible.
A workable order of operations:
- Start with one row of five or six trees, not a full plan.
- Walk from the receiving crate to the row and back. If that walk is annoying, the layout is wrong.
- Walk from the row to the car side. Same test.
- Only then fill the rest of the rows in the same shape.
Success signal: you can restock a crate and load two customers without crossing your own tree line twice.
Budget for paths and lights
Paths are priced per tile, and the Catalog ships the whole order in one crate at receiving. Prices read on 15 November 2026:
| Item | Price |
|---|---|
| Stone Path, Wood Path | $8 / tile |
| Santa's Workshop Path, Icy Stone Path, Rail Fence | $15 / tile |
| Candy Cane | $150 |
| String Lights | $180 |
| Reindeer | $180 |
| Decorated Tree (Small / Medium / Large) | $200 / $350 / $550 |
| Giant Nutcracker | $650 |
A worked example: a 12-tile path from the entrance to the register at $8 a tile is $96. The same 12 tiles in Icy Stone Path is $180. Neither number includes lights, and one String Lights purchase is $180 on its own.
Budget the path first and the decoration second. Paths change how the lot plays; a nutcracker changes how it looks. And remember that decor arrives as one crate — a big order means one more delivery to unload before anything is placed.
When to redo the layout
Redo it when the shape of the lot changes, not when you get bored.
- After lot expansion. Ten more trees need somewhere to go, and the open-centre plans absorb them without a rebuild.
- After the HQ unlocks two checkout stations. Two registers mean two queues, and the walking gap you kept may now be the thing customers stand in.
- After you hire a lot worker. Once you are not the one carrying every tree, the route that mattered to you matters less.
Keep the tree buy prices separate from this budget. Decor is cash that does not come back as inventory, while a tree does — Run a Christmas Tree Lot Tree Prices covers the side of the ledger that earns. And if the expansion itself is what you are saving for, Run a Christmas Tree Lot Upgrades has the prices.