Balsam Hill trees

[shalalala]

I've been debating one for years and think this year might be the year (and they have a sale on!).
Does anyone have any reviews or pics they would be happy to share? And do you rate yours if you have one?
Our ceiling is 8.5ft high and was thinking of an 8ft so it is almost full height.
Also, if you have one do you have it pre-lit or without lights? We were thinking without light look more real.
Thank you!!

I have two pre lit outdoors ones and wouldn't recommend them at all. The lights are feeble and one has a dodgy connection despite being used for all of about 6 weeks in total (we've had them for two christmases now).

IMO they're good at marketing...

BH always have a sale on, but their trees are always crazily expensive.
Have a look at Christmas Tree World, excellent, realistic and more sensibly priced.
Our ceiling height is around 10ft, and I intended to buy a 9ft tree, but when we measured up, we realised that it would be rather overwhelming so we settled on an 8ft one.
As well as height you have to consider its diameter. CTW specifies this so you can work out how far the tree will stick out in front and at the sides. Obviously your rooms might be massive so you will be able to stand back and admire from afar, but if our ceiling height was like yours, I would be considering 7.5 or 7ft.
I am not keen on the pre lit ones.

Do your children know ?

The year my parents got a fake tree we just all cried and they ended up digging one up from the garden on Christmas Eve

Going to choose a tree, bringing it home and decorating it on Christmas Eve is the very best bit of Christmas for me.

I have one, it’s not pre-lit and I love it. We’d always had real ones before (now have young children and cats) and this is a really good replacement. They’re well worth the extra money.

I recently ordered from BH and was disappointed. It wasn't a tree, I ordered two garlands and a matching wreath which came to several hundred pounds. For the price I was expecting something absolutely beautiful and realistic (they were tagged on the website as in the 'very realistic' category) but alot of the greenery looked plasticky and unfinished and the lights (they were pre-lit) looked cheap when I switched them on. I have returned them at a cost of £10 per item but compared to what they cost I feel okay about sucking this up! Three years ago I bought a 3ft pre-lit tree from BH for our upstairs landing and the quality of that is good, it was one of the cheaper ones. I won't be buying from them again though.

I love our tree from there! It's pre lit - a space saving half tree!

I actually just added the wrong pic....I'll dig out the better one!

This one is more in focus!

I got one last year. And absolutely LOVE IT!
Would post a photo but there's photos of my children in the background.

A lot of people commented and said they thought it was a real one! Love love love my tree

Placemarking as I would like to hear people's views.

I have one, not lit. Very pleased with it

I have a pre-lit one, very happy with it

I have one, not lit, had it about four years I think. I love it. I am not a fan of full/bushy looking trees so deliberately chose a different look (I think it's called Alpine).

I adore my balsam hill one. I have a prelit 6ft one and I think it looks great. I got it in the sale last year in early-mid December.

I have a pre lit and I really don’t think it’s worth the money. I can’t see the difference between ours and the one Morrisons had up for £60

We have a prelit 7’ BH Fraser fir and it is superb and definitely better than any artificial trees that I’ve seen in garden centres / John Lewis etc . We bought a 4’ Alpine in the July sale for a sideboard in our home office as dh is now WFH .

I bought a BH tree 2 years ago and am happy with mine. It is an investment tree, but far superior in quality to anything I could find on the high st. No more vacuuming that annoying tree tinsel stuff up constantly. Branches are strong and will support a decent weight decoration. It is a very heavy tree (18kgs IIRC), which makes getting it in and out of the attic a challenge, but that is a small price to pay for a tree that is so sturdily built IMHO. The high quality storage bag it comes with is a nice touch which adds value.

Ours is prelit as I HATE doing the lights. I would have preferred more lights on a tree of its size, but it's a minor niggle in the grand scheme of things.

to help me choose I searched the names of the various trees on Instagram, you'll be able to see lots of examples.

I paid £260 for ours in the sale. Compared to the cost of buying a similar fresh tree every year, I would comfortably expect to 'break even' within less a decade. Considering I got 10 years loyal use out of a far inferior high st tinsel tree, I have every confidence that this BH tree could easily last 15-20 years, making the cost per year very reasonable.

I would buy from them again (indeed I may well do if I can convince DH that we need a tree in the dining room as well as the living room ) but on balance I'm not sure whether I'd bother with a prelit one in future

We got an 8’ Vancouver spruce pre-lit from there last year and it’s not great. It’s in 4 sections which you have to put together and connect up the light sections, so some faffing around is still necessary. It takes up a whole cupboard when collapsed and it doesn’t have the charm of a real tree. The White Company have a great looking tall fake tree but it isn’t prelit.

Thank you everyone. For those who do have a BH, what style did you go for?

@ForeverWondering I completely understand, IF you feel comfortable dm-ing me a cropped pic I'd appreciate it - and if not dont worry!

A 6ft prelit Berkshire fir.

Love ours! 7ft full width. Can't wait to put on my gloves to fluff the branches up, 1 month to go!

Thanks @chopper2311, what size is yours if you don't mind me asking?

@shalalala If you’re still thinking of buying a Balsam Hill tree and haven’t done so yet, I’ve had an email with an extra 20% off code. It’s a one time code and I won’t be using it so DM me if you’d like it.

The annual Balsam Hill thread.