01Start here
Artificial Christmas Trees: How to Choose Size, Lights and Shape
How to choose an artificial Christmas tree: the height for your ceiling, the shape for your floor, pre-lit or unlit, realistic tips, flocked or colored.
6 guides
Artificial Christmas trees by type
Pre-lit, flocked, realistic, colored, fiber optic and pop-up trees: what each type is and how to choose.
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Artificial Christmas trees differ in four ways: the lights, the branch tips, the finish and the shape. Balsam Hill sells pre-lit trees with LED or incandescent lights, and unlit trees for people who string their own; its rule of thumb for an unlit tree is about 100 lights per foot of height. Its realistic trees use PE tips molded from real branches, and its classic trees use flat PVC needles.
Start with the artificial Christmas tree guide, which walks through every choice in order: height, shape, lights and foliage. Then go deeper. The pre-lit tree guide gives light counts by height, and the most realistic tree guide explains PE tips and tip counts. For a snowy look read about flocked trees; for a white or pink one, colored trees. Trees that light up from the base or fold into a box have their own page: fiber optic and pop-up trees.
7.5 ft pre-lit artificial Christmas trees
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Artificial trees
02Buying guide
Fiber Optic and Pop-Up Christmas Trees Explained
How a fiber optic Christmas tree lights up from its base and changes color, and how a pop-up tree folds into its box with the decorations still on.
Photo: Sean O'Flaherty (Seano1) / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.5
03Question
Flocked Christmas Trees: What Flocking Is, Shedding and Care
What a flocked Christmas tree is, how it differs from a frosted tree, why flocking sheds at setup and how to handle, decorate and store one.
04Question
Most Realistic Artificial Christmas Trees: PE vs PVC and Tip Counts
What makes an artificial Christmas tree look real: molded PE tips against flat PVC, how many tips a 7.5 ft tree needs, and how to shape the branches.
05Guide
Pre-Lit Christmas Trees: How Many Lights and Which Kind
Pre-lit Christmas trees explained: how many lights a tree needs per foot of height, clear or multicolor, bulb shapes, and how to check the lights safely.
06Guide
White and Colored Christmas Trees: Lights, Ornaments, History
How to pick a white or colored artificial Christmas tree, which lights and ornaments suit a white tree, and where colored trees began.
Photo: Jernej Furman / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0Frequently asked questions
What are the main types of artificial Christmas tree?
Trees differ in four ways: whether they come pre-lit, what the branch tips are made of (molded PE or flat PVC), the finish (green, flocked or colored) and the shape. Less common types include fiber optic and pop-up trees.
Which artificial tree type looks the most real?
A tree with PE tips, which Balsam Hill explains are molded from casts of real conifer branches. Shape the branches properly when you set it up, from the bottom section upward.
Do flocked trees come pre-lit?
Many do. King of Christmas notes that its pre-lit flocked trees have a dusting of flocking over the strands and bulbs.
Sources
- Choosing an Artificial Christmas Tree: The Ultimate Buyer's GuideBalsam Hill
- PVC vs PE Christmas TreesBalsam Hill
- Artificial Christmas Tree Buyer's GuideKing of Christmas
- How Many Lights for a Christmas Tree?Balsam Hill
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