Bring out the Grinch! Artificial Christmas Trees Question.

superhappypanda

With Halloween almost here, it means the Christmas season is almost upon us and I wanted to get an artificial tree for my place this year. I've never had one before and wanted to get something that looks nice but have no idea what to look for or a good place to buy one from.

MetroidZoid

Most places will have display models set up. If you get it down to a specific brand/model whathaveyou, you can always write down that number and put it on Amazon or something to price compare. But yeah, I can't think of a decent box store that doesn't have a few set up closer to the holidays.

Entriech

Your best bet'll be a big box department store. Just start cruising around about a week after Halloween and you shouldn't have any issues finding some displays. At that point it's just really what you like the look of, and how much you want to spend. We got a nice 7 footer that looked nice and thick for about a hundred-ish up in Canada.

Your only real choice between trees besides appearances is whether you buy a prelit tree or not. Personally I prefer unlit, as I like the effect of putting my own lights on.

Mulletude

The cheaper they are the shoddier they are. Otherwise, just go and look through them. The local target here sets up 10-12 of them each christmas so you can see exactly what you would be getting. Most other big retailers do the same thing.

MichaelLC

We got one from Sears a few years ago and it's still going strong. Has GE lights pre-wired, and is 7" tall. Paid maybe $200? Looks OK. We got some pine scented oil from Yankee Candle so it smells like a real tree.

Entriech wrote: »

Your only real choice between trees besides appearances is whether you buy a prelit tree or not. Personally I prefer unlit, as I like the effect of putting my own lights on.

That's interesting because I see the only advantage of the fakes ones is being pre-lit. We still decorate ours, but don't ave to worry about lighting.

superhappypanda

MichaelLC, I like the idea of the pine scented oil. I'll have to pick some up, does it smell like an actual pine tree or does it smell kind of off? I'm asking because any Vanilla scented Yankee Candle makes me want to wretch into a dumpster, it's just a smell reflex I've developed.

I'm kind of 50/50 on the prelit thing. Mostly because I'm not sure if I'd want multi-colored lights or just one color. We did white lights a few years ago and it looked nice, but I always liked multi-colored ones and it might be nice to switch it up every couple years. $200 is about my budget either way.

Entriech

MichaelLC wrote: »

We got one from Sears a few years ago and it's still going strong. Has GE lights pre-wired, and is 7" tall. Paid maybe $200? Looks OK. We got some pine scented oil from Yankee Candle so it smells like a real tree.

Entriech wrote: »

Your only real choice between trees besides appearances is whether you buy a prelit tree or not. Personally I prefer unlit, as I like the effect of putting my own lights on.

That's interesting because I see the only advantage of the fakes ones is being pre-lit. We still decorate ours, but don't ave to worry about lighting.

The other advantage of a fake tree is not having to go out every year, buy a tree, deal with a recently alive cut down thing in the house with the attendant potential for dirt, bugs, and of course good old pine needles. All that effort to simply throw away a few weeks later. And fake trees look a lot better than they used to, say, twenty years ago. Ours is a masterpiece compared to the one I grew up with.

MichaelLC

superhappypanda wrote: »

MichaelLC, I like the idea of the pine scented oil. I'll have to pick some up, does it smell like an actual pine tree or does it smell kind of off?

I'd say it's a lot better than the candles, but if you're sensitive to that stuff, maybe check it out in the store first. We got a small bottle (a few ounces) that comes with a ceramic (?) ornament you're supposed to douse with the oil.

Entriech wrote: »

The other advantage of a fake tree is not having to go out every year, buy a tree, deal with a recently alive cut down thing in the house with the attendant potential for dirt, bugs, and of course good old pine needles. All that effort to simply throw away a few weeks later. And fake trees look a lot better than they used to, say, twenty years ago. Ours is a masterpiece compared to the one I grew up with.

Oh yeah, hope I didn't sound sarcastic or anything (fake trees is SERIOUS BUSINESS). I meant more the only reason I'll tolerate a fake one is that they come pre-lit. We're in a condo building, so we can just throw our live/dead ones over our balcony and they'll haul it away.

Also,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdiXSsFp29s&feature=player_detailpage#t=25s

Shogun

If you're looking for a potentially better deal on a tree look for places that sell Spas and pools in the summer time. Where I live places that sell hottubs and shit sell christmas trees during the holiday season. Got a 7' pre-lit w/ LED lights a few years ago. I wanted LEDs because they are brighter, the colors are richer (blue is blue!), and because they use less energy and no heat so I can leave it on all the time. Very satisfied with my purchase but I don't think it has any sort of branding that I'm aware of.

mts

Entriech wrote: »

MichaelLC wrote: »

We got one from Sears a few years ago and it's still going strong. Has GE lights pre-wired, and is 7" tall. Paid maybe $200? Looks OK. We got some pine scented oil from Yankee Candle so it smells like a real tree.

Entriech wrote: »

Your only real choice between trees besides appearances is whether you buy a prelit tree or not. Personally I prefer unlit, as I like the effect of putting my own lights on.

That's interesting because I see the only advantage of the fakes ones is being pre-lit. We still decorate ours, but don't ave to worry about lighting.

The other advantage of a fake tree is not having to go out every year, buy a tree, deal with a recently alive cut down thing in the house with the attendant potential for dirt, bugs, and of course good old pine needles. All that effort to simply throw away a few weeks later. And fake trees look a lot better than they used to, say, twenty years ago. Ours is a masterpiece compared to the one I grew up with.

this.

fake trees are awesome, you still get the fun of decorating without having to keep somethign alive and cleanup is folding it up and throwing in a box

superhappypanda

Well, I'm sold on the fake tree. I'm hoping to fly home for a couple days around Christmas but want something up from about Thanksgiving until I get back. If I can find one that breaks down kinda small I'll get it. And right now the pre-lit LED thing is sounding pretty nice.

I'll have to take a day and drive around to a couple places to find one once the local brick and mortars start selling them.

Lindsay Lohan

Fake trees are indeed wonderful - we had a prelit one with white lights up until last year and the best part is that you can hang any ornament on any branch. It makes it so much easier for heavy ornaments to not have to find the one branch strong enough to hold them. We then had a squirrel infestation of our shed and they killed a section of the lights so we're back in the market this year for another.

We bought ours at Kmart of all places. It was a Martha Stewart one that replaced a Big Lots special. I can second not to go super-cheap - you will notice it and they will have bare spots and be a pain to bend to make them look at all life like.

Additionally, after Christmas watch for clearances and you can usually get a fake tree storage duffle bag looking thing pretty cheap which can be super handy.

superhappypanda

I find it hilarious that a squirrel infestation killed your fake tree. Sorry, but that's the definition of ironic.

Thanks for the heads up on the duffle bag, I'll be looking for one of those guys. Sadly, I don't know of any K-Marts in Seattle-land, but we do have Fred Meyer, Walmart (ugh), Target, etc. so I'll keep my eyes peeled.