Artificial Christmas Tree

[ReginaPhalange12]

I am looking to buy a new artificial tree this year, I have one of the cheaper unlit ones from BH but it has the tinsel like branches and takes so long to fluff out / shape and can still look patchy.

Does anyone have any recommendations please? Bonus points if you have pictures 😀

I've seen so many people with the Balsam Hill Christmas trees, and they're currently up to 50% off! Plenty of pics on Insta. A little bit more on the spenny side, but quality is meant to be fab.

www.balsamhill.co.uk/?gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwtZK1BhDuARIsAAy2Vzty2FKMw36C5D2VbNFw5coHfiw69i6YHkp8iKlD32Zj-42-8-2bLUoaAuHREALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

Also just spotted there's a thread where people have ordered some artificial ones

www.mumsnet.com/talk/christmas/5128454-ordered-a-fake-christmas-tree-mistake

Thank you @jcr89 the BH trees are beautiful but even with 50% off the trees I like are £600+ 😱 I've looked at Christmas Tree World / We Love Christmas & although some look perfect its hard to know what they're like irl

We have the BH Fraser fir pre lit , it’s excellent .

@Floralnomad it's one of my favourite BH trees🎄 is it easy to fluff up?

Not much help right now but nearer Christmas Homebase always do some lovely ones (the higher priced ones, they also do cheap ones.)
I have one and it's really realistic with proper needles, not the tinsel kind. They reduce them in the run up to Christmas too.

We bought quite an expensive one (£150 about 7 years ago). It was green with a sort of plasticy soft 'snow' on it.
Year 1 - all jolly nice
Year 2 - smelt a bit odd (sprayed it with Fabreeze, room smelt a bit like a sick bay)🤮
Year 3 - smelt horrible, put it outside for a week (planned ahead), smelt horrible, jet washed it, (!) smelt horrible. Threw it away.
We think it was the 'snow' that had gone off.

Bought another artificial tree on Christmas Eve, half price from Homebase. 6 foot, pre-lit, branches on hinges (just drop down) Christmas restored! 🎄😃

I bought a really good one two Christmases ago from the White Stores, as well as a tree storage bag and a couple of sets of outdoor lights. I think they're really good quality!

I'm sure I got one called Colorado Spruce, something like that, a 7ft one. It looks pretty realistic. Just checked my old email orders and we paid £119 and £30 for the 7ft storage bag, which is a LOT more than I've previously ever spent on trees but I got so sick of shit ones from Tescos or Wilkinsons etc!

@yarnwitch thank you, I'd not thought of Homebase but you're right, they had some lovely ones in last year

@TwoLeftSocksWithHoles oh no 🤢 I've never had a flocked one but will stay away in future just in case. Glad you managed to get a new one in time

@lemonyfox I searched through a few MN threads and White Stores came up a lot, I'd not heard of it before but they are showing their trees online (although obviously too early for them to be in stock), the Englemanns Spruce from there looks lovely too. Good to hear they are just as good as the picture shows.

About 4 years ago DH bought a random slim pre-lit 6ft one from B&Q the day before Christmas Eve - should have been £250 but was on sale for £50. It's great so would recommend B&Q trees.

We also have a crap 8ft one from Wilko that I refuse to throw away because of the environmental impact of it. Was £200 about 7 years ago, def wouldn't recommend wasting time with Wilko/The Range.

My DH got our 7ft artificial tree from B&Q for £7 about 14 years ago and it’s still looking brilliant. I’m not sure what price it was originally. Like the previous poster, I’d recommend the trees from there.

We have a 7ft prelit tree from Costco... they are usually around £400 but is beautiful, sturdy and easy to put up.

Balsam hill currently have a half price sale on... really good quality especially with summer sale prices

@BaublesAndGlitter bargain! I've seen a few at the range when I've popped in & they're not what I'm looking for, they seemed quite expensive for the quality.
Could you sell or donate the one you don't like?

@JenniferGreenHat thank you, I've had Christmas decorations from there before but didn't think to look at trees. I will be keeping a close eye on the B&Q website this year.

@TaffyandTeenyTaffy I hadn't thought of Costco, we have a membership there so I'll definitely be looking. Thank you

@CrushingOnRubies thank you. I've been back & forth on the BH website for a couple of weeks now, they do sell some amazing trees but I'd ideally like prelit 7ft and I can't bring myself to spend £600+ on a tree 🙈

I brought a habitat one from Argos last year and was really impressed, got lots of compliments. It has a lovely shape to it.

We have a Balsam Hill. I dithered for a couple of years before buying it though due to the cost. We saved up and got a prelit slim one in the July sale.
I was a little disappointed at first but it looks better every year and doesn't take as much fluffing now.

The power pack went last year and it was still under warranty so we got another one sent out.

Go on, buy one 😈

Thanks @TinselTarTars I'll keep an eye out 🙂

@TinselTarTars that's the kind of encouragement I need 😂 I do have a BH one currently but it's one of the cheapest they do and not pre lit, it honestly takes me hours to fluff it out enough so it sits right & has no gaps. It doesn't help that I'm a bit of a perfectionist with the tree, the lights take me far too long too so I really do want a pre lit one.

In case anyone has this question in the future I looked at A LOT of different trees (and ordered / sent back a few 🤦🏽‍♀️) but was never 100% happy... I ended up going back to the BH website & ordered the pre lit 6ft BH Balsam Fir Tree & couldn't be happier. I was originally looking for a 6.5ft / 7ft tree but it was too tall for the space so I went a little smaller & have popped my tree onto 3inch bed risers to give it a little bit more height & it's perfect