Pat Nabong/Sun-Times Buying a real Christmas tree is part of the Barnett family’s holiday tradition. Each year, Troy Barnett tries to find the largest evergreen he can from a lot near his Lincoln Park home, he said. But his plan hit a snag earlier this month when the lot shut down for the season after it sold its entire inventory just weeks after opening. “I was totally surprised,” Barnett said. “It was our tradition just to walk over, but they sold out of their trees two weeks prior to us traditionally getting it.” Shannon Carey ran into a similar issue. As Carey and his girlfriend looked around online to find a real tree, they noticed many lots were already empty.