Disappointed with my balsam hill

[LeapinLizards]

I wanted a really good fake tree & opted for balsam hill. They look so amazing on their site & had excellent reviews. But I've just put it up & feel so disappointed - it looks NOTHING like the one on their website. It looks sparse rather than full - it looks like a cheap fake tree, really.
Others who have a balsam hill, did you need to spend a long time separating out all the branches & twigs? Is it that I've not done that correctly? Or were my expectations just way too high?

I must say, if I had bought that tree, I would be mightily disappointed with it, even after the latest round of fluffing. We recently bought a Tesco one as a secondary tree for the conservatory and it looks stunning for £50. It took 45 minutes or so to pull all the branches out. It’s dense and bushy and of really high quality given the price. We have just put the lights on it and aim to decorate at the weekend. I’ll post a picture at the weekend of you are interested?

this is ours. Had it a couple of years and very happy indeed. It's not a 'realistic'one, but it is stunning. Can't wait for this weekend when it will come out of the loft again and bring Christmas to the Banana household.

TheRebelHedgehog, I would be interested in seeing it when you get a chance. I must admit, I don't think the BH one is worth the money. And I bought it half price! Perhaps I'll change my mind once the lights & decs are on there, but I don't think so.

@WhyAmIBoredAtHome it's from www.werchristmas.co.uk

I found a 10% new customer discount code online so it was about £109.00.

We bought ours from Christmas Tree World, rather than BH, as they seemed much the same but cheaper. Very nice people to deal with and though it came in a huge box they gave me an enormous bag to store it in.

We put it up last night and started fluffing. Had I not read this thread I would have expected to take about half an hour. After 90 mins it is about half done.

It is an 8 foot tree and all I can say is thank God I didn't go for an even bigger one, I'd still be fluffing on Christmas Eve.

It looks good so far though.

I think your tree looks great now. You don't need to send it back.

Here's my top tip to make your tree look even better.

Buy a green garland, the type for mantels and thread it through around and around the centre of the tree. All gaps will be gone! It works a treat and adds depth.

I do think it looks a lot better now and it will look good once decorated but really I would return it if you aren’t keen and get something else. It’s a lot of money for something you aren’t that impressed with.

I was going to order one but glad I didn’t bother now.

I put our BH one up today. Thank you so much for this thread. I took two hours while the toddler was sleeping and it still needs a bit of a ‘fluff’ but I am v pleased and would never have got it right without this thread. I cropped the pic because I don’t want anyone to recognise our house... Kids going to put the decorations on after school

Here is our £50 Tesco tree. If I recall this got rave reviews on here last year. Lights went on last night, will be decorated tonight

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Will try again once I figure out what to do 😀

Interesting to read this! My Norway Spruce has literally just arrived and I've started the fluffing after reading all the advice on here. Was anyone else shocked by how hard the needles feel? Don't know why I was so surprised as I guess they need to be hard+solid to retain the overall look but it doesn't feel very nice at all.

My expectations are super low after reading this thread (maybe a good thing?), but I'll plod on and see how it looks once fully up and fluffed!

We put ours up yesterday. BH one. I haven't fluffed it as much as I should probably. My issue with it is that it is so bright - it's pre lit- that you can't see the decorations for the glare! Trying to decide what to do. Start again or just keep adding more decorations. Colour wise I have lots of white and silver and copper. Have added some red. I'm not keen on the ribbon around trees look but wondered it it might help.

Result after fluff round #1. Quite happy actually!

Same here. I bought one in their sale in summer, got it out and it was rubbish,spindly and uniform. Balsam Hill wouldn't budge. We've just bought our first real tree and it's amazing....just wanted it to be right this year.

GoEasyPudding that's a genius idea for adding depth. I will do that next year - perhaps pick up a cheap garland in the sales and keep it.

I am happier with the tree than i was. I just hadn't anticipated how much work was involved in the fluffing and I still don't think BH are quite as magnificent as the 5 star reveiws suggest.

That said, i saw a fake tree in a shop for @£90 and it didn't look worth that price at all so that made me feel better. Perhaps I just have very high expectations.

And Ilikecakes, that tree is looking VERY good after just one round of fluffing. Mine looked shit after the first round. You may wish to hire out your services to those of us who don't have the same knack - a professional fluffer

I have two BH trees, a 5' and 7’.
They do both look really lovely once they're fully fluffed, shaped and tweaked but to 'do' both trees from unbagging to completed took a full weekend.
I had to tackle the fluffing in batches, because it was so tedious and tiresome, but I kept coming back to them because they looked better after each dose of attention!

Yes I think I was too impatient and didn't fluff enough.

I've added more decorations but in a very random fashion. It looks better but not great. I think I need to take everything off and start again. Sigh.

Maybe tomorrow.

This is my balsam hill. Excuse the fallen angel at the top - waiting for a tall person to come and reinstate her!

How do you store them after Christmas until the next year?

Can they lay flat??

They come with a zip up bag and mine (nearly 7 feet) comes in three pieces. It doesn't store flat, but I do just shove the pieces in the bag and they're sort of on top of each other on their side. No special treatment.

I think it looks really realistic. We have real trees every year and I've never had one where the trunk can't be seen for the branches...

Thank you.

Btw, welltidy quite a fitting name there.,

I am really glad I read this thread, thanks LeapinLizard - we bought a BH this summer (Christmas in July sales) but haven't yet assembled it and I hadn't seen that video of how to do it properly. SO I am VERY glad I watched that before tackling it next weekend (I may get that part done early while no one else is home and allow all to help decorate it later).