What's pc for a not real Christmas tree?

[LucyBorgia]

I have ALWAYS been insistent on a real christmas tree being an essential part of Christmas even when a poverty stricken student I sacrificed drinking money to buy a real tree for our grotty flats. Now I am faced with a future without the smell of Pine needles and am forced to buy a.......not real tree? I don't want to say fake tree I don't want a fake tree! Anyway anyone got a fabulous Christmas tree wannabe they would recommend to buy?dd landed in hospital last year with a very bad asthma attack and the Christmas tree was the prime suspect. Real Christmas trees are now banished forever from my house. Where do I start? What are the best looking ones? Do you have a very pretty one and where would I buy it?

I got mine from Homebase 2yrs ago, its a 7ft green one, quite full aswell.
It was half price around £40, its still going strong and looks beautiful with all the lights and decorations on it (not included).
Never buy one with fibre optics in as they don't last and you end up having to use real lights anyway.

My advice would be spend as much as your budget will allow. You will get many years out of a good quality tree.
Shop around and see what looks good on display
Pre-lit trees are lovely if you can afford one.
Garden centre trees are usually over priced.
Steer clear from any faddy trees.

I have a John Lewis pre-lit tree which is about to do its 6th year and still looks beautiful.

I have a bigger house this year though so it may be bannished to the dining room this year to make room for a real tree in the living room. :)

I bought a synthetic tree (not fake ) last year because the real trees were £70+ and the last one was a bit nekkid.
And the pine needles

We bought one from Amazon, pre-lit. The wires were incorporated in th branches (came in 3 pieces that slotted together, each piece had its own cable)

I'd have preferred a wire free one-maybe that's fibre-optic? But it's difficult to tell on the web picture.

Take a while to straighten out the branches and fluff them up.
I'm going to put extra lights on this year, then all the baubles.
And put it up a bit earlier. We normally buy a tree 10 days before Christmas, but this one arrived on 22nd Dec, so put up in a hurry

With the prelits trees don't the lights go just like string lights? Can you replace bulbs? We are terribly hard on lights and sets rarely last past their second year.

I second Homebase.

We brought one about 10 years ago, i think it was about £120.00

It is a beautiful tear drop one, every year without fail people tell how lovely it is. It has lasted more years than we ever expected it to and has been worth every penny.

Got an artificial tree in Homebase last year - keep your eye out for their special offers and weekend deals.
Modern LED lights are more robust than the old type, although choose 'warm white' if you don't want the harsh bright lights with a cold blue-ish tinge.

Fluffing is the key - look on youtube for instructions (although beware that fluffing has another meaning...)

Chippy is right, i takes me a good hour or so to arrange all the branches perfectly before i let anyone decorate it.

We got an amazing artificial one from a Wyevale garden centre a few years back (after our DC1 was born) for £80 or £90. It is incredibly real-looking. So much easier than pine needles everywhere.

And do you put your own decorations on? 'Synthetic' (cheers 70 ) trees always look so perfect would my tacky but beloved colourful decorations just make it look weird? Maybe I should find another way to hang my nostalgic doodahs for the tree around the house. On holly branches? nestling in wreaths?

I have replaced all my decorations and so have no more hideous colourful baubles and no tinsel.... definitely no tinsel!

So...fluffing got it chippy...will research fluffing. Poppy if it is very real looking do you go ahead and decorate it like a real tree? By that I mean not with a set made for the tree?

I have never had a real tree. I can't be bothered with trying to fit one in the car, the needle drop, the getting rid of it afterwards and the expense.

Every year the tree comes out of the loft the week before Christmas and goes back up on the 3rd or 4th January. I don't wait until the 12th day because by then I am sick of the sight of it and OH's birthday is on the 4th January and I like to get Christmas cleared out of the way before his birthday.

Ahh Hokey Cokey Is tinsel not due a retro revival? How about just an itty bitty bit on top of your picture frames?

My mum bought a tree from Woolworths when my brother was born, in 1995, I inherited it 6 years ago as they moved and it was to tall for their living room :o

Still looks new and us gorgeous when set up and decorated with random tat that DS has made or that children I work with have given me.

We still have a real one, but in defence of fibre optic ones, I bought one of the small ones to go in the dining room in 1999 and it is still going strong after 12 years use, never even had to change the bulb.

I have a vast collection of decorations accumulated over the years, and let my DC do what they will. Then I edit the tree once they've gone to bed .

IME the trick for co-ordinating in well-loved bits and pieces is to have plain baubles of different sizes and finishes, strings of beads, lametta (love love love it!) or tinsel in a single colour scheme, to spread evenly around the tree to give an overall impression of a theme.

Some years I'll mix in a lot of red and gold, for example, other years i'll go for greens and blues. But the old faithfuls are always there - from MIL's first tree (1950's Woolies), decs picked up on travels, and the ones my DC choose every year for themselves (ahhhh).

Love that peanut your woollies tree is a family heirloom! I'm very soppy nostalgic about things like that. I was given the Christmas crib that I played with when I was little and now my dds have the three wise kings riding the donkey and dancing with Mary the way I used to.

Chippy, I think I have a pine needle left over from last year in my eye, sniff!

chippy love it! Editing the tree I'm a bit of a control freak and find it hard to watch the kids ruining decorating the tree. I hover, wincing and find the whole thing very stressful < Christmas tree Induced OCD? >

I've never had a real tree
I saw a beautiful one in M&S last year, so full and not a synthetic looking green, was expensive around £120 but looks the type of quality that would last well over a decade.