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The Best Artificial Christmas Trees for a Festive (and Easier) Holiday
Save the hassle and waste with one of these fake trees that looks as good as the real thing
Artificial Christmas trees, once a plasticky punchline, have improved significantly in recent years. Now the best of them look nearly identical to live trees; the lack of messy fallen needles and a pine smell are often the only giveaways that the tree is fake. In addition to looking great, our favorite artificial trees are easy to put together; come prelit if you choose; pack down small and, in the long run, cost less than buying that annual live tree.
After researching dozens of trees and testing eight of them, we liked the Balsam Hill BH Balsam Fir best overall. It’s a higher-price product but it looks realistic with barely any fluffing, is easy to set up, comes strung with gorgeous lights and stores in a compressible duffel bag. If you’re in the market for a lower-price tree, we recommend the Puleo International 7.5 Foot Pre-Lit Premier Douglas Fir. National Tree Company’s Pre-Lit Artificial Mini Christmas Tree is our favorite short option and Balsam Hill’s Red Spruce Slim is the best for narrow spaces.
- Best overall artificial Christmas tree
- Best lower-price artificial Christmas tree
- Best mini artificial Christmas tree
- Best slim artificial Christmas tree
- Others you should know about
- How we picked
- We tested
- Our experts
Best overall artificial Christmas tree
Balsam Hill
BH Balsam Fir (Candelight Clear LED, 7.5 Foot)
Perfectly full-bodied and easy to store, this premium tree looks so realistic it is worth every penny.
Pros
- Looks realistic with very little fluffing
- Several size options
- Easy to construct
- Comes strung with hundreds of lights (if you choose)
- Easy to store in its own duffel bag
Cons
- Higher price
The Balsam Hill BH Balsam Fir is the best fake Christmas tree in every category we and our experts considered important, bar none. The cost of this artificial tree is a sizable investment, ranging from $850 to $1,300, depending on the size and light setup you choose. But we found that the tree was absolutely worth it because it was beautiful and realistic-looking, in addition to being easy to construct and break down. You can choose from four different heights: 5.5 feet, 6.5 feet, 7.5 feet and 8 feet, with a variety of light options, from unlit to candlelight LEDs. And because you’ll be able to use it year after year, you’ll eventually end up saving money compared with the cost of buying a real tree every December.
I set up all the trees we tried inside our house and even covered them with a few ornaments. The gorgeous Balsam Hill BH Balsam Fir was the closest to looking like a live tree; with ornaments, you truly couldn’t tell the difference unless you sniffed the tree or felt its branches. The other trees we evaluated were a bit more obviously made of plastic. My kids were in awe of how “magical” this one looked, and my husband noted he’d choose this tree every time due to how easy it was to set up.
We tested the 7.5-foot version of the BH Balsam Fir with candlelight LED lights, which arrived in two large boxes containing the tree, storage bags, a repair kit, fluffing gloves and a base—everything you need to get the tree set up without stress. The tree took about 20 minutes to build, which was comparable to other trees of the same size, but impressive given that it has more branch tips and lights than any other tree we tried. The 5,700-plus branch tips and 900 lights gave the tree a realistic look and a warm glow, with very little fluffing required. (Lower-price trees typically required more fluffing to get a realistic look.) In other words, the Balsam Fir tree is already full, without much work on your end.
The lights require power cords that run up the back of the tree, but they’re hidden well. Attaching each of the four segments of the tree to the others also plugs each set of lights into the next piece in one go, rather than making you deal with an additional connection. The Balsam Hill trees we tried were the only ones that provided this setup, and it prevented a lot of frustration. The lights also have a foot pedal attached, which makes them easy to turn off and on.
Balsam Hill’s trees came with our favorite storage solution: two compressible storage duffel bags that fit the tree’s four pieces easily after a brief defluffing. This helped us fit the tree into a small corner of our attic with ease. None of the other tree brands we tried came with a storage bag.
Balsam Hill trees come with a three-year warranty. This was the highest-price tree we tested, but if you typically spend $200 on a live Christmas tree each year, you’ll find that you’ve paid for the BH Balsam Fir within five or six years, and you’ll be able to continually reuse it. Its quality is second to none.
Best lower-price artificial Christmas tree
Puleo International
Douglas Fir (Clear Lights, 7.5 Foot)
For one-third of the price of our top pick, this tree offers a short build time and a good enough, if minimalist, look with 800 prestrung lights and a solid warranty.
Pros
- Lower price
- Good-looking
- Short build time
- 800 lights
- Long warranty
Cons
- Somewhat sparse
- No box, duffel or carrying case
The Puleo International 7.5 Foot Pre-Lit Premier Douglas Fir is a lower-price artificial Christmas tree with a beautiful glow. The branches look less lifelike and sparser than those on our top pick, and they require more fluffing, but with a little bit of effort you can make it a worthy tree.
The Puleo International Douglas Fir arrives in a single, heavy box. It was much faster to build than our top pick because there are fewer branches. The tree comes in three heavy pieces, not four, and the branches look more obviously made of plastic than those of the Balsam Hill trees we tried, so they require more fluffing to look realistic and hide the trunk. It took some effort, but we were able to get the tree to a place where we were happy with the look. The 800 white lights do their job of emitting a soft, cozy glow once the tree is constructed, even though attaching one strand to another requires an additional connection after you attach each tree piece to the next. The included repair kit comes with a few additional bulbs should one burn out.
The Puleo International tree’s main downside is storage. It doesn’t come with any kind of bag or container other than the cardboard box it was delivered in. The tree isn’t easy to unfluff; breaking the rickety-feeling metal hinges between the branches and the trunk feels like a real possibility if you unfluff too hard. The tree barely stuffs down small enough even for its delivery box and once inside, it’s heavy and unwieldy to carry, making it much harder to store in the attic than our top pick.
Still, Puleo International has been in the artificial Christmas tree game for a long time, and the company’s five-year warranty is solid. For a lower-price option, this tree hits all the required marks.
Best mini artificial Christmas tree
National Tree Company
Artificial Mini Christmas Tree (Clear Lights, 4.5 Foot)
This 4.5-foot artificial tree has a small price tag, but it still looks delightfully cheery and realistic.
Pros
- Small size
- Low price
- Comes with more high-quality lights than its small-tree competitors
- Lightweight
- Looks realistic and full
- Great warranty
Cons
- Doesn’t come with a storage system
Compared with the other small, low-cost trees we tried, the National Tree Company Pre-Lit Artificial Mini Christmas Tree was the obvious winner. It is 4.5 feet tall and full-bodied, looks realistic and weighs less than any of the other trees we tried, making it an ideal option for decorating a smaller space.
The National Tree Company Mini Tree arrives in a small, lightweight box and offers a simple, six-minute assembly. It’s split into two pieces and comes with a stand. Due to the full-bodied branches, very little fluffing is required to achieve a realistic look. Despite its small size, the Mini Tree comes prestrung with 450 white lights, which is 350 more than the competitors we tested. They cast a lovely, cozy glow over the room.
Like most of the other trees we tried except those from Balsam Hill, the National Tree Company Mini Tree doesn’t come with a storage system except for the box it arrives in. But it’s so small that you can use the delivery box and carry it up into an attic or down into a basement without concern and with relatively little unfluffing. We also appreciated the National Tree Company’s five-year warranty program.
Best slim artificial Christmas tree
Balsam Hill
Red Spruce Slim (Candlelight Clear LED, 7.5 Foot)
Like our top pick, this slim tree comes in a variety of height options, with several light configurations. It looks realistic, fits into narrow spaces and compresses easily.
Pros
- Looks great
- Comes strung with 940 lights, more than slim competitors
- Includes a repair kit, stand and binding duffel storage bag
- Easy to build
Cons
- Higher price
Like our top pick, the Balsam Hill Red Spruce Slim is a premium product, both in its quality and its price. But you get what you pay for: It provides a realistic, well-lit look and can be easily stored.
The Red Spruce Slim is narrow, which means it fits well into smaller spaces. It was one of the easiest trees to build, simply because its slim, 43-inch-wide nature makes it more lightweight. Like our top pick, it comes with a large storage bag, repair kit, stand and fluffing gloves. It required very little fluffing to look realistic, and the branches and needles are high-quality. One of the branches was torn upon delivery, but because the tree comes with a robust repair kit we were able to fix the issue within five minutes of opening it. We tested the Red Spruce Slim model with LED lights, and the 940 bulbs—double the number you’ll find on the other slim trees we tried—cast a pleasant glow throughout the room. As with our top pick, the lights plug into one another as you build the tree, and you can control them with a foot pedal.
The Red Spruce Slim also edges out its competitors with its storage system, which is the same as the one our top pick offers: a duffel bag that fits all the pieces and can be tucked easily into the corner of your garage or attic. Balsam Hill trees come with a three-year warranty.
Others you should know about
A great tiny tree
The 3-foot Treetime Ashton Spruce comes in the tiniest box we received for this testing round, and we assembled the tree in under two minutes. All you need to do is put together the plastic stand, then fluff the few available branches. It’s easy to store because it’s so small, and its 100 lights are more than enough for the tiny tree. Plus, the needles look fairly realistic. But our top pick for a small tree, the National Tree Company Mini, has four times the number of lights and higher-quality branches for not much more money.
A great lower-price tree if you’re willing to spend extra time on setup
While National Tree Company’s Pre-Lit Artificial Full Christmas Tree, 7.5 Feet ends up looking good thanks to its 750 white lights and flexible branches, it takes a lot of effort to set up. The system of attaching the lights and tree sections is complex, and you can see the extension cords through the branches once it’s built, even after copious fluffing. That said, the needles are high-quality—meaning the tree looks quite real once it’s set up—and the tree is half the price of our top pick. It doesn’t come with any kind of storage solution, but if you’re looking to spend less and willing to put in the work for setup, this isn’t a bad option.
A real-looking slim, unlit tree
The National Tree Company Artificial Slim Christmas Tree, 7.5 Feet was just as lightweight as the Balsam Hill slim tree and offered a quick enough build time of 12 minutes, with moderate fluffing required. It’s also fairly easy to store and fits well into the box it arrived in with its quick-fold branches. But the NTC tree comes unlit and the needles look less realistic than the Balsam Hill tree’s needles. It doesn’t come with a repair kit, either.
Best Choice Products Premium Spruce Artificial Holiday Christmas Tree is a lower-price option; it’s often on sale for less than $100. It comes in a few height variations, with 1,300 branch tips, which is 200 fewer than our top pick has. But it comes unlit and it takes four times as long to build as many of the other trees we tried because the wire branches require a lot more fluffing to look realistic. The flexible wire branches make this tree easy to store, but the thin and cheap build was obvious when this tree was placed alongside the others we tried.
How we picked
Trust us
I’m a freelance journalist who has been writing product reviews and feature stories for over a decade. I have worked as a full-time editor at Wirecutter, where I reviewed and wrote about outdoor, travel, parenting and sleep products. Since then, I’ve written product-focused stories for Reviewed, Slate, Wirecutter, Gear Patrol, Forbes, REI and others. I’m also a Christmas lover and amateur home design nut, especially when it comes to the fixer-upper we bought last year.
I spoke with two experts to help guide my research and testing. Mark Nichols is a strategic construction advisor at Real Estate Bees who specializes in green design. Nichols helped me consider the sustainability pros and cons of buying an artificial Christmas tree. (In short: Artificial trees are made with plastic, so from a sustainability perspective, you’re better off choosing a tree from a farm that practices sustainable forestry. But, Nichols says, if you’re going to buy an artificial tree, the most sustainable approach is to buy a good-quality one you’ll use for decades.)
Willow Wright is the owner of Urban Redeux, a vintage and antique store in the Washington, D.C., metro area. Wright is a big Christmas fan, and she talked to me about how to choose a tree to match your Christmas decorating style, confirming Nichols’s assessment that sustainability, in this case, means taking care of your tree for a while. “Pick the best one you can afford,” she recommends.
After I completed testing, I also spoke with the team at Puleo International about their legacy of artificial tree construction.
We tested
A good artificial Christmas tree needs to check the following boxes:
- A realistic look: Ultimately, you want an artificial tree that looks real. (I know, I know.) The trees we selected are all the “realest” looking in their categories. In other words, they don’t seem like molded plastic. Their branches are flexible and their needles look more like evergreen needles than green strips of vinyl.
- A high tip count with good-quality material: The best trees offer many branches and needles with variation and color, like a real tree. This is measured by tip count, or how many needles are on the tree; the higher the count, the fuller the tree is likely to look. A higher tip count doesn’t guarantee a more authentic look, but it is a helpful tool to use when comparing options.
- Lighting variation: Lighting can be a personal choice and the best trees will allow you to choose from prelit, unlit and different light types. Still, most of the people we spoke with preferred to have a prelit tree as it reduces the overall work of setup. We looked for trees that offered a high light count that resulted in a warm glow.
- Size variation: It’s not just about the height; artificial trees come in varying widths, too. In this guide, we offer mini and slim tree options, in addition to “regular” width options. To figure out which size tree you want, it’s important to have an accurate gauge on the space you intend to house your tree in. You don’t want the tree bending under the height of the ceiling, or leaving the space feeling empty. We preferred trees, such as our top pick, that come in a variety of height configurations.
- Easy to build and store: A good artificial Christmas tree will be easy to put together and easy to take apart, requiring minimal fluffing. The best options we tried came with compressive duffels, which made storage a breeze. Others we liked fit well into their original boxes. The trees we liked least were miserable to put together, hard to lug into the garage and required a long time to fluff the branches.
To test the trees, we opened each box, took an inventory of the included parts, then set a timer and got to work. We constructed each tree using whatever instructions were included, taking notes about how easy or hard the process was. We fluffed the trees, then hooked up the lights (if included) and carried the tree into our high-ceilinged living room. In that room, we could tell how well the tree did or did not fill the space, and how much of a glow was cast by the lights. We also added a small number of decorations to check how well (or not) the decorations hid a tree’s flaws. (Given that we did this testing in September, our 1- and 4-year-old kids were incredibly confused.) Then we broke each tree down according to its instructions and attempted to jam them into their boxes or (praise be) compressive duffels. We store our winter gear in the attic, so we carried each tree up into that space and noted how easy it was to tuck the tree away.
Our experts
- Mark Nichols, architect and strategic construction advisor at Real Estate Bees specializing in green design, based in Los Angeles
- Willow Wright, owner of vintage and antique store Urban Redeux, based in Alexandria, Va.