Who has fake Christmas trees that look nice?

[swilshire]

I'd rather use a real tree, but my work schedule takes me out of town for the whole month of December, so I put up a fake tree for the family before I leave town. I have one that is more than 25 years old that looks a lot like a real tree, but it is getting pretty ratty. I look every year at sales and after Christmas, but I can't find one that looks really nice. This one is pretty wide at the bottom and most of the newer ones seem to be more narrow. It can only be 7 1/2 feet tall because our ceiling is sort of low.

Has anyone seen any really good looking trees? If so, where? I've given up looking for a bargain and now just want any tree that I will be happy with.

Thanks for your help and Merry Christmas!

Sheila

 

[DisneyHardin]

When I was looking for a new tree, I quickly realized that you can't wait until after Christmas for a sale because the good ones are always gone by then. I bought our good tree at Sam's Club. I think it looks really nice.

 

[swilshire]

When I was looking for a new tree, I quickly realized that you can't wait until after Christmas for a sale because the good ones are always gone by then. I bought our good tree at Sam's Club. I think it looks really nice.

Thanks for the tip. I'm not a Sam's Club member, but my daughter is thinking of joining.

I forgot to mention that I prefer NOT to have a pre-lit tree. Just weird, I guess, but my husband always does an amazing job with putting the lights on the old one.

 

[DisneyMandC]

We always get our fake trees at Garden Ridge (we have several trees). I've always thought they looked nice, and they have some different varieties of trees as well. Not sure how many come prelit as opposed to not though.

 

[DisneyMandC]

I suppose Garden Ridge is now called "At Home" though. Not sure what the availability of these stores in your area would be either. I'm in Virginia.

 

[havaneselover]

I got mine from Tree Classics. It has real feel needles. I needed a slim tree (tight space) about 8' tall with colored lights and they had exactly what I needed. Last year I bought a tree keeper bag (half off at Dillard's after Christmas) which I highly recommend.

Frontgate is not budget friendly but the quality is excellent. My parents have a very large Frontgate tree and it's very, very nice.

 

[LJSquishy]

I think Balsam Hill are considered to be top of the line if they're in your budget. They are expensive but if you divide the cost out over 10-20 years it seems easier to digest.

I'm hoping to buy one this year after Christmas if they go on sale sometime (not sure if they do). I haven't looked up which other brands might be comparable in terms of quality.

 

[ktlm]

Thanks for the tip. I'm not a Sam's Club member, but my daughter is thinking of joining.

I forgot to mention that I prefer NOT to have a pre-lit tree. Just weird, I guess, but my husband always does an amazing job with putting the lights on the old one.

Not that weird, we are the same way. We have yet to find a pre-lit tree that we really like the lights. We like the multicolored rather than the simple white, but most of them seem to have 2 settings flashing or solid on. We always have ours set to be more of a twinkle with some strands solid on and some set to blink a little.

I'm allergic to real, so we always have fake. I agree with the PP that said that most of the trees left for the after Christmas sales aren't that great. The skinnier ones seem to have been the style the last few years, but we also prefer the wider on the bottom ones- so that makes them even harder to find. You might find a decent pre-season sale this week or this weekend. Hobby Lobby sometimes has some good ones. Do you have any special Christmas or seasonal stores in your area? We have 2 of those where we sometimes find trees. Macy's has them- although a lot of them are only available online which makes it hard if you are picky like we are. Garden Ridge/At home used to have some really good ones, but in the last year or two we have not been that pleased with the ones we found there. Frontgate and Balsam Hill have beautiful fake trees, but they are very expensive. They are supposed to really last though-- a lot of the others last 2 or 3 years and then you start getting broken branches- we have had one or two held together for the season with duct tape. If you have patio furniture stores in your area, check with them because a lot of those stores in areas that get cooler during the winter will convert to holiday/Christmas tree stores for the winter season.

 

[diznee25]

We just ordered a tree from Balsam Hill. Right now they are having a 40% off sale. Sale ends tomorrow, Nov. 18th. We love Balsam Hill....this is our second tree from them. Recently bought a house and have more rooms to put trees in!

 

[LJSquishy]

We just ordered a tree from Balsam Hill. Right now they are having a 40% off sale. Sale ends tomorrow, Nov. 18th. We love Balsam Hill....this is our second tree from them. Recently bought a house and have more rooms to put trees in!

Which tree did you buy?

 

[shamrock30]

Our 7 1/2 foot tree is a brand called GKI Bethlehem, and it looks quite real. I bought it online after seeing it in a local pool/Christmas store.

 

[BellePrincessBelle]

We have a Santa's Best and LOVE it. It is however, a pre lit tree.

 

[usnuzuloose]

I don't know your price range, but have seen some nice ones on QVC. You could look on their home page.

 

[ZephyrHawk]

I've had a number of fake trees over the years and I think they all look nice. That includes the tree my grandparents bought and is older than me. It's our Disney tree now. Trust me, once you get the lights and decorations on, you won't notice they're not real.

That being said, we got a very nice looking (even without the decorations) one from Menards. Not sure that store exists where the OP is, though.

 

[Serial]

We have a Balsam Hill "Vermont White Spruce" 6.5 feet unlit tree, which we bought on sale after Christmas 2013 and were very happy with when we put it up last year. We just got tired of all the critters that come with real trees and the mess that's left behind every year. We also didn't want a pre-lit tree because we prefer picking out our own style of lights and have read stories about pre-lit lights burning out.

I believe Balsam Hill had an "up to 70% off" sale after Christmas, and just from looking through my emails ran an "up to 50% off" sale on Black Friday last year. The sales don't really mean anything because I don't think Balsam Hill ever sells their trees at "full price." Just for reference, it looks like Balsam Hill is running an "up to 40% off" sale right now and our tree is priced at $399. We bought our tree after Christmas for $329+tax with free shipping. (I don't know if Balsam Hill charges tax outside of California, where we live and they are headquartered). If you can wait until after Christmas and want to go with Balsam Hill, I'm pretty sure there will still be plenty of trees in stock because that's their core business.

The nice thing about Balsam Hill's many varieties of trees -- particularly their signature trees -- is they have a high percentage of "true needle" foliage, which are twigs and needles formed from injection-molded PE plastic that look very real. There still are some fake looking PVC foliage, but those are only on the inside of the tree that you barely see and used to make the tree look full. The tree does need to be "fluffed" during assembly every year to shape it and make it look full, and the process is kind of a pain, but the results are quite nice. My only complaint about our tree is that the twigs aren't really separately painted brown and the needles are a bit too dark green throughout the whole holiday season. This was a bit of an impulse buy, but if we had more time I probably would've ordered Balsam Hill's sample box to see all the different needles. But like someone above said, once we decorated it, we hardly noticed.

We also considered Frontgate, whose trees look very nice and realistic online, but couldn't find a tree that suited us (and I believe all their trees are pre-lit).

 

[29Candicanes]

I bought this tree from At Home. It was $129 and is 9 inches tall. I bought it over the weekend and I love it! However, its a wee bit to tall for my ceiling so I had a improvise . The top of the tree looks much better now. Also it isn't pre lit. I added my own lights.

 

[29Candicanes]

The first picture I took.. excuse the top hat lol.

 

[ktlm]

Home Depot and Lowes also have trees. Sometimes they have some pretty ones.

 

[swilshire]

Thanks for all the great leads! I'm going to try to find one for this year, but if I don't, I'll definitely check out Balsam Hill for after Christmas.

Thanks again,

Sheila

 

[anna08]

Our costco ones look great and we've had them for around 10 years. Lights still work too!