Pre-lit Christmas tree How much would you spend?

[Lavenderbythefrontdoor]

My current artificial tree is for the bin; more of it ends up on my floor than on the branches (it's snow-effect, so annoying).

I've decided I'd like a pre-lit one and I've gone down a bit of a rabbit hole. It looks to me, that in order to get a properly beautiful one, that doesn't need any additional lights added, I should be looking at around 3000+ LEDs. With that comes the price tag, of course.

I've seen these ones but I can't decide if that is a WILD price to pay for a Christmas tree, or a long-term investment. I'd expect it to last me 10+ years, so ~£50 a year, if I'm trying to apply nonsense maths to the situation.

The thing is, none of them are stunning. Lots of the ones I see online are £500+ but look a bit bald. Am I searching for the Holy Grail?

The 7ft Ultra-lit Arbor Ultima Tree
7ft Wrencombe Pre-Lit
Everlands 7ft Pre-Lit LED - bit cheaper

We've got a fibre optic one we've had about 10 years and I think I paid about £20 for it 😂

Obviously it depends how well off you are but £500 seems like a fortune to spend on a Christmas tree, even if you use it for 10 years, especially if you can't find one you have really fallen in love with.

To me, if none of the pre-lit trees hit the spot, it would make more sense to find a really nice tree without lights and add your own lights - this would also give you flexibility if you wanted different colours or styles (fashions in such things change and your decor might change) and the problem with a pre-lit one is that if the lights fail then it's a write off whereas one without lights should keep going indefinitely as long as you pack and store it with reasonable care.

Have a look at Balsam Hill their trees are pretty decent. You have to spend time fluffing them!