Or do fake trees always look crap?

[heyyyottoe]

So I treated myself to a Balsam Hill tree and I’m honestly shocked at how shit it looks.

All my previous trees weren’t great but I thought buying this brand would be better … how mistaken I was.

so sparse and ugly. If I ever bother to decorate I’ll just get a real tree from now one.

How on earth did you NOT know that? They may be separated from their roots but they still absorb water from the bottom of the trunk, provided you cut a slice from the bottom. Do you just stick flowers in a dry vase?

My god 😂😂

There is a lot of snobbery around real trees but many of us have artificial trees for all sorts of reasons. I have been married for 36 years and we have always had artificial trees because I am highly allergic to real trees. Many of them look fairly realistic these days and are actually much greener than most of the real things as they last for years. Most people we know have artificial trees as they are much easier in general. No watering, drooping or stray pine needles in the carpet still turning up six months later. As I have always been allergic to pine trees, we had an artificial tree when I was a child. I think it was three or four feet tall as it stood on the sideboard and, in true sixties style, had no pretensions of looking like the real thing as it was made of silver tinsel. However, once decorated, it looked very pretty and I think we were more easily satisfied in those days. We had a long porch outside the house and had a real tree with fairy lights there.

Unfortunately I think with Balsam Hill you are paying for the name. I got a 9ft pre-lit tree from Amazon for £179.99 and it is just lovely, so pleased with it. My friends have bought Balsam Hill trees and I think they are overpriced and underwhelming.

You’ve got to bend the stems out in each and every branch!

My Christmas tree is roughly 30yrs old. I bought it from woolworths many moons ago. 2 years ago I bought a new fake tree but I absolutely hated it and went back to old faithful

We’ve got this one from Everlands. We always had real trees up until about three years ago however when I saw one of these at my parent’s one year and actually had to go up to it properly and sniff it etc to work out if it was real or fake I realised that some artificial trees are pretty good. We bought the same (the unlit version, prefer to use our own lights) and honestly once it’s up you can’t tell the difference. The basket base is the only thing that gives it away.

One year we’ll probably go back to real be side I miss the smell and ritual of buying them however in terms of convenience and long term cost, an artificial makes for a compelling choice.

Sorry -link here: https://www.everlands-trees.com/en/collection/trees/grandis-fir/

In a way that chopping down trees to put on your house won’t? At least fake trees are reusable.

Fake trees always look totally shite. But some people like them anyway.

They really do. Trees are living things, and are not perfectly symmetrical. Fake trees look fake. Maybe you need glasses?

I bought the Nordman Fir from Balsam Hill 5 years ago (Covid years when people had money to spend). It is the most realistic fake I’ve ever seen as the top is not just a triangle. Before that I always had real trees but hated the needle drop or them looking sad by Xmas as the kids wanted it up early Dec. I do miss the smell but that wasn’t always guaranteed with a real tree either.

My own pet hate is people not disguising the metal tree stand - I like a few hessian gift sacks with boxes in just stood underneath to hide the most obvious giveaway.

Mine is from Woolies too!! It’s going into its 29th year and only cost me £9.99 😁

I do miss Woolies

I wasn't comparing them tbh. Neither is a particularly good idea.

You do, in the same way that you keep cut flowers in water. They drop far fewer needles if you keep them in water.
We have a tree stand that's like a flowerpot you can fill to keep the tree hydrated.

I got a real tree a few years ago and tbh I hated it. Trying to get it to stand straight, water it, water spilling on the hardwood floor, hover up the mess, the overpowering smell and then having to dispose of it. And it was full of spiders. Maybe I had a bad experience but it definitely turned me off.
Back to my trusty old artificial tree.

I don’t like them and would never buy one, I’d rather have no tree. Half of my family is Jewish so didn’t have a tree there and the tree at home was always artificial and decorated with perfectly placed baubles to match my mother’s decor…

I remember going to my mum’s best friend’s house and they always had this beautiful real tree with the needles on the floor and it smelt so amazing and was decorated with lots of random things. I loved it and was so envious, this is what I’ve replicated every year in my own home. We choose it together from the same farm each year too.

It comes down to personal
taste but for me nothing beats a real tree. I also make a real garland and wreath every year.

I wouldn’t exactly say crap - except for a hideous pink fake I saw the other day in M&S - but real trees are IMO immeasurably nicer.

Though having said that, I was once the proud possessor of the fakest little tree imaginable. It was in the 70s, in a Middle Eastern country with hardly any western style shops, let alone 🎄goods available, so I was overjoyed when a new shop opened and I found an ultra fake little tree, only about 3 feet high, with branches largely made of green and silver tinsel - but it came in a box with a set of lights and a few baubles. I adored that tree! Nobody else on the compound where we lived had any sort of tree - all the children were invited in to enjoy it.

Mine is over 25 years old from Argos. It's been moulting in recent years but still looks vastly better than the one you just bought...

I found my expensive real tree had branches in annoying places and was vastly more spread out than my fake one.

Yes.

had branches in annoying places and was vastly more spread out than my fake one

But that’s the point… that’s what trees look like! They’re not perfectly uniform all the way down.

We’ve got a prelit one that used to belong to my late in laws. It has sentimental value to us.

i hate seeing real trees being thrown out with the rubbish after Christmas.

Ours gets picked up and turned into mulch for the local community gardens. I’m happy with that.

A real tree looks better........ In the ground. Killing a perfectly healthy tree to look at a for a few weeks then toss it, dead, in the bin, is very odd to me.

But the tree still dies? They look better in the ground.