<p>Does anybody have any brands that they feel are particularly nice and realistic? After having to undecorate my live tree last year because it was too dry to make it to New Years, and redecorate a second one, I’m ready for a good fake! I found Balsam Hill and Tree Classics brands. Opinions on these or others? </p>
<p>(I want to say “ho-ho-ho” instead of “bah-humbug”! 
Please help!)</p>
<p>I’ve been looking at these for years, but I always chicken out because the truly nice looking/real looking ones are often outlandishly expensive (treeclassics.com) or my kids go off on me about the smell etc.
We have a cathedral ceiling in our family room and always get a 12 ft. tree. You can imagine that getting that baby in and out is a pain and one year the dang thing fell down! Most tree stands are not designed for this size tree and it was a major mess. Now I tether it to the corner wall! Please, if anyone can advise I too would appreciate it!</p>
<p>I really like the idea of the fake trees that come with the lights already attached. Putting the lights on the tree is no fun (unlike putting up the ornaments). And with the lights “built in”, you don’t get to look at all those ugly wires.</p>
<p>We went the articificial route years ago. We got tired of always feeling frustrated when needles started falling off. I’ve become one of those people I never thought I’d become- the kind that set up the Christmas trees and decorations the weekend of Thanksgiving- so it’s got to last. </p>
<p>I also have some fairly heavy ornaments and finding just the right branches on live trees got old. I don’t know my brand (actually I have three trees!) but they weren’t expensive. There is a Christmas store in our area with beautiful trees and if I were investing in one really nice new artificial tree, I’d go look around a “designer Christmas” type store. </p>
<p>However, every tree, when loaded up with lights and meaningful ornaments gathered over the years, becomes a beautiful tree.</p>
<p>I miss the smell, although I’m big into tart burning, so the house is usually infused with smells of cinnamon, spruce, cookies, and apples, all throughout the season.</p>
<p>momneedsadvice,
To hide the wires, put the lights on as you assemble the tree, from the bottom up. Take the strand of lights, and wrap it around each branch starting in the center of the tree, working out to the end of the branch, and then back. You won’t see the wires if you hide them this way, because they won’t be strung “horizontally” round and round. It takes a lot more lights this way! But the effect is much nicer, and when you’re done putting the tree together, you’re also done with the lights!</p>
<p>I bought a very nice tree for 1/2 price (~$150) at Hobby Lobby year before last, I believe. I can’t remember the brand name and I have the box wrapped snugly and securely and won’t see it until I break it out again in November. If I remember correctly, I got a 7’ or 7.5’ tree (pre-lit) that is hinged. It goes up and comes down very easily. I am very pleased with it. I hesitated about buying a pre-lit tree, wondering if the lights would last, but I just decided to do it. I do love the smell of a real tree, but it has just gotten to be too much work. I need easy and that’s what an artifical tree provides for me.</p>
<p>I believe we bought ours from Home Depot…it was about $100, it looks really nice, and each tree lasts us about 3 years (same here, we put it up Thanksgiving and leave it up until New Years). We had to get rid of our real ones because our mom is allergic.</p>
<p>We finally broke down and bought an artificial tree a couple of years ago. We bought it before thanksgiving on sale (under $100.00) at K-mart its a “Martha” tree and very nice, the texture of the needles varies so it looks very natural and it it PRE-LIT! I can’t tell you how easy it is to put up, you are not exhausted by the time you have it up and the lights on. By the time it is decorated you would not know if it is real or not, except for the smell factor. I will trade the smell for the ease and the cleanliness anytime. Also I always wanted a narrow tree for the place I like to put it and that was almost impossible with a fresh tree.
We used to live in a house built in 1870 with huge rooms, so we always got a huge tree. My H would have to build a stand out of wood and guide wire the tree to the stand and to the wall, big project and it couldn’t be watered so we couldn’t leave it up long. But while it was up it was magnificent.</p>
<p>Does anybody here ever have a twinge of regret about going artificial?</p>
<p>Another fake-tree convert here!</p>
<p>I used to be one of those who wouldn’t hear of anything other than a real tree. I love the smell and the look, but live trees don’t last too long here in south Florida. Even when you keep them in plenty of water inside the house, you don’t know how long ago they were cut. The branches always started drooping long before we were ready to take down the tree. But what really put me over the edge a couple of years ago was putting the lights on the tree and getting my arms get so scratched up that it looked like I’d been in a fight with a cat :eek: After that, we bought Target’s most expensive pre-lit tree, around $250-$300, which was a bargain compared to the ones I found online. It has been great - easy to unpack and set up, no fuss with lights and it holds the heaviest ornaments without complaint.</p>
<p>I can still enjoy the smell of a real tree - I just ask the guy at the real tree lot if I can have some of the scrap branches that they cut off the bottoms of the trees. I bring those home and arrange them in a kind of centerpiece and it smells and looks great!</p>
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<p>None at all. I miss the smell, but can remedy that with a nice candle.</p>
<p>I can’t picture myself ever going with a fake tree, but I can picture myself severely shrinking the size tree that we cut! My kids STILL want the biggest tree in the farm - and I feel like too much of it (decorating, watering, cleaning up needles, undecorating) falls on me.</p>
<p>I am trying so hard to cut back on the amount of junk we buy - especially made in China stuff. I just have this issue feeling like I have too much stuff in my house as it is.</p>
<p>I have the same problem, Weenie. I don’t know who died and left me the official tree decorator/waterer. So I made an executive decision and shrank the tree to a very manageable 6’. Husband is willing to buy, cut the trunk, put it in the stand and then disappear. I can now manage the lights and decorations without threatening bodily harm to anyone in the house who doesn’t show up to help.</p>
<p>My darling husband is Jewish, so I don’t expect help with a tree–I’m happy he’s tolerant of a tree. Sometimes we have one and sometimes we don’t. One of my favorite Christmases and New Years was in India at eco-tourism places. Dare to be weird.</p>
<p>Artificial tree = Artificial Christmas.</p>
<p>^Um…I would have to disagree.</p>
<p>My Christmases have been the same (if not better) since we got an artificial tree. We still spend the time decorating the tree together (except my mom, who can’t participate because of her Rheumatoid Arthritis), we still have the big dinner, we still get presents.</p>
<p>But then for us, Christmas isn’t about the presents anyway.</p>
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<p>Yes, but I own an artificial tree because we are all allergic, my husband to the point that he would sporadically cough the entire time that a real tree was in the house. He was a good sport for years but we finally broke down a couple of years ago. I really like that it has the lights already on it…but it is just not the same. The better looking trees are pricey - but no more consumptive coughing and with care it will last a long time.</p>
<p>A Thymes brand candle in their Frasier Fir fragrance comes passably close to the real smell.</p>
<p>Another vote for Thymes Fraser Fir. I discovered it last week, and it smells like the real deal. It comes in a candle and in “room scent,” and maybe other forms, as well.</p>
<p>The problem with an artificial tree is that it’s not a tree. It <em>looks</em> like one but it’s not. It’s like placing pretty, wrapped-up empty boxes under the tree. They look just like Christmas presents but they’re not.</p>
<p>who cares if it’s not? christmas is supposed to be about being with each other and all that - not if your tree is made out of tree or plastic. </p>
<p>We always got a real tree but had a lot of problems with them. When we got a dog who was drinking the tree water we got rid of it and have done artificial since even though we don’t have the dog anymore.</p>