Also great: Puleo 6.5-foot Royal Majestic Spruce Rose Gold Tree (RMSRG-65C5)
The also great Puleo 6.5-foot Royal Majestic Spruce Rose Gold artificial Christmas tree.
Photo: Marki Williams
Also great
Puleo 6.5-foot Royal Majestic Spruce Rose Gold Tree (RMSRG-65C5)
Retro metallic glamour
Reminiscent of the aluminum trees of the mid-century modern era, this tree has shiny tinsel âneedlesâ that offer a cheerful and charming sparkle.
Buy from Amazon
If Christmas turns your mindâs eye to the mid-century modern era, a tinsel tree may be just the thing for you. Similar to the aluminum trees of the age, tinsel treesâ foliage is made of metallic âneedles,â and the Puleo 6.5-foot Royal Majestic Spruce Rose Gold Tree (RMSRG-65C5) is an example that we recommend from a manufacturer we trust.
Upon setting up this Puleo tree, one tester wrote: âI love the color, itâs just like a slightly warm silver.â My tree was basically silver with a slight coppery overtone, too. Neither screamed ârose gold,â but both were strikingly pretty, and with the lights on, both trees took on a peachy cast closer to their name.
The warm champagne glow of the 500 clear incandescent bulbs is perfect for this sort of tree; the cool white of many clear LEDs would look harsh. (Also, if rose gold isnât to your taste, Puleo and many of the other manufacturers whose trees we recommend here make tinsel trees in plain silver, yellow gold, copper, pink, and other colors.)
The 1,228 branch tips are thick with foliage and give the tree a full and natural shape, and the white base and light-gray light strings disappear against the pale, shimmering needles. The foliage is well attached and evidently durableâonly a few needles fell off during our setup and fluffing.
From an engineering standpoint, this is quite a rudimentary tree, most notably in its lack of automatic through-the-trunk connections for the light strings. We didnât have much trouble finding and connecting their plugs manuallyâand the manual gives an illustrated how-toâbut you can expect to spend a few minutes hunting among the branches. The wires of the lights are pale gray, which does a good job of camouflaging them. But since they donât have a foot-operated power switch, turning the lights on and off means plugging and unplugging the tree at the wallâor installing a plug-in smart outlet that you can control with your phone.
Upgrade pick: Balsam Hill 7.5-foot Fraser Fir Flip Tree Color + Clear LED
The Balsam Hill 7.5-foot Fraser Fir Flip Tree Color + Clear LED, our upgrade pick for the best artificial Christmas tree.
Photo: Sarah Kobos
Upgrade pick
Balsam Hill 7.5-foot Fraser Fir Flip Tree Color + Clear LED
The Cadillac of Christmas trees
More lights, more realistic branch tips, more money: For a long-term investment, Balsam Hillâs most popular âspeciesâ is hard to beat.
Buy from Balsam Hill
If you want one of the very best artificial trees available, we recommend the Balsam Hill 7.5-foot Fraser Fir Flip Tree Color + Clear LED. It commands a huge step up in price from our top pick, but you definitely get more tree for the money: 1,320 white and multicolor lights (versus our top pickâs 750) and 3,424 branch tips (almost double our top pickâs 1,867). Its attached wheels make it far easier to move aroundâand are almost a necessity, since the full tree weighs nearly 80 pounds.
This is what the company calls a âflip treeâ: Instead of separate bottom and middle sections that you have to stack manually, this tree comes combined into a single section that you flip upside down on an axle for storage (allowing the branches to flop against the trunk) and upright for display (with the branches falling into position under their own weight, as they do on all modern fake trees). That makes initial setup quicker, but even though all of Balsam Hillâs Fraser Fir models have âpre-fluffedâ memory-wire branch tips, we found that they didnât work as advertised: It still took me an hour to fluff the flip tree we tested.
Close view of the Balsam Hill Fraser Fir Flip Tree, our upgrade pick for the best artificial Christmas tree.
A higher proportion of LED bulbs and polyethylene tips places Balsam Hillâs options among the most realistic, opulent, and heavy trees weâve tested. Photo: Sarah Kobos
Due to its high bulb count, the Fraser Fir appears opulently lit compared with our other picks. The dual-color LED version of the tree offers the best value over the long term: Not only do you get the long-lasting durability of LEDs, but you also have the versatility to switch colors on all of the treeâs lights if you want to change the look from white to multicolor or a mix of the two. Balsam Hill trees come with two boxes of replacement bulbs, in case of individual blackouts.
Balsam Hillâs remote control offers an alternative to the foot-pedal controls. Video: Sarah Kobos
One last highlight: You can operate the Fraser Firâs lights using a small remote control. By contrast, with most pre-lit trees, including our top pick, the National Tree Company Downswept Douglas Fir, you have to use a button on the power cord.
âItâs hard to overstate how much I like the remote,â said one of our long-term testers. âItâs so much more convenient than cycling through an unlabeled foot pedal. And my 5-year-old son really loves it.â That said, the Fraser Fir has a foot-operated switch, tooâa welcome backup option, since we can imagine the remote getting lost or simply malfunctioning over the decade or more that the tree should last.
Budget pick: Puleo 7.5-foot Pre-Lit Aspen Fir Tree (277-APG-75C7)
The Puleo 7.5-foot Pre-Lit Aspen Fir Tree, our budget-pick for best artificial Christmas tree.
Photo: Connie Park
Budget pick
Puleo 7.5-foot Pre-Lit Aspen Fir Tree (277-APG-75C7)
Trendy look, nice price
Trees like this Puleo offering, with a sparser, shaggier look, are trendy, and the larger gaps between their branches make it easier to hang and show off ornaments.
$240 $180 from Amazon
You save $60 (25%)
$258 from Home Depot
Sparser, naturalistic Euro-style trees are becoming increasingly popular, and Puleoâs 7.5-foot Pre-Lit Aspen Fir Tree (277-APG-75C7) is a terrific and very reasonably priced example. With 700 warm-white incandescent lights and 1,319 branch tips, it presents beautifully after fluffing. The branch tips fade from pale green at the outer ends to dark at the base, an eye-fooling detail that mimics the coloration of live trees, and the brown trunk (as opposed to the typical green) adds to the illusion of reality. The incandescent lights are the modern typeâa blown bulb doesnât cause an entire string to go dark.
A close-up of the branches of the Puleo 7.5-foot Pre-Lit Aspen Fir Tree.
The sparse branches on the Puleo Pre-Lit Aspen Fir add realism, simplify setup, and help large ornaments look less crowded. Photo: Connie Park
Joe Puleo, the companyâs owner, explained to us that designers and homeowners have come to appreciate the sparser Euro-style design because ornaments stand out better on such trees than they do on densely foliaged trees. And since you have fewer branches getting in the way, the ornaments are easier to hang. Fewer branches also mean youâll spend less time fluffing the tree; working alone, I did it in about half an hour.
A minor complaint: You must manually connect the light strings, because they donât automatically connect through the pole when you put the three sections together. Finding the plugs among the foliage is a bit challenging, and figuring out how to connect them in the proper order took some trial and error in our tests. The experience was not nearly enough of a hassle to dissuade us from recommending the Pre-Lit Aspen Fir, but we hope Puleo will offer a pole-connecting version in the future.
Also great: National Tree Company 7.5-foot Feel Real Downswept Douglas Fir Pencil Slim (PEDD4-392D-75)
The National Tree Company Feel Real Downswept Douglas Fir Pencil Slim, our also great pick for the best artificial tree.
Photo: Michael Murtaugh
Also great
National Tree Company 7.5-foot Feel Real Downswept Douglas Fir Pencil Slim (PEDD4-392D-75)
A slimmer version of our pick
Artificial trees offer a lot of versatility, as this space-saving version of our top pick proves. If you donât want a tiny tree in a small room, consider a slim model with a minimal footprint.
$279 from Home Depot
$215 from Lowe's
The National Tree Company 7.5-foot Feel Real Downswept Douglas Fir Pencil Slim (PEDD4-392D-75) with Dual Color LED Lights is a great option for a small space, such as a foyer or a compact apartment. Itâs similar in construction to our top pick, the Downswept Douglas Fir, with a rich mix of realistic polyethylene branch tips and fake PVC filler branches. And it uses the same dual-color, multimode LED lightsâyou can switch between all-white, colored, a mix of the two, and several blinking settings. But this tree has 350 bulbs, not 750, because thereâs a lot less tree to cover; at just 32 inches, it is barely half as wide as the 59-inch Downswept Douglas Fir. But that also allows it to work well in spaces where a full-width tree would be impossible to fit.
Close view of the National Tree Company Feel Real Downswept Douglas Fir Pencil Slim.
This space-saving slim treeâs 32-inch diameter is barely half of the roughly 5-foot girth common to our other picks. Photo: Michael Murtaugh
Placed side by side against our other picks, the Douglas Fir Pencil Slim looks underfed, and among our staffers it was nobodyâs first choice. But once we set it up on its own and decorated it, this tree still looked more than realistic enough. And as is true of our other picks, once the lights are turned on, the tree itself disappears into the background, and all you see are the lights and the glimmer of the decorations. The unusual shape also proves a broader point that we kept coming across in our research: Whatever size, shape, height, or style of tree you need, you can usually find a pretty good model to fit the bill.
The competition
The 7.5-foot version of the Home Decorators Collection Twinkly Swiss Mountain Fir Christmas Tree comes with app-controlled LED lights that you can program directly or set to multiple preprogrammed patterns, pushing their abilities beyond the seven or eight presets that most white-plus-color trees come with. But compared with our picks, it has a higher proportion of cheap-looking PVC branches, and in our tests the finer polyethylene branches tended to break off during routine handling. We do love its Twinkly smart lights, though, enough so that weâve added them to our guide to the best Christmas lights.
The National Tree Company PEDD1-312LD-75X (a former pick in this guide) is a great tree, but we made a mistake about one feature when we previously recommended it. This model lacks the companyâs PowerConnect feature, which connects the lights when you attach the central pole.
Frontgate mostly competes with Balsam Hill in the premium category, as it focuses on super-realistic and super-expensive trees. You canât go wrong with any of Frontgateâs offerings, but they are pretty limited, especially if you want something other than clear-only lights.
There are many, many more competitors than what we describe here. If you canât find one of our picks or a comparable tree from the makers we list in this guide, you can still get an excellent tree. Use the criteria we outline in How we picked, especially regarding branch-tip count, material, and lighting. Once trees are fluffed, lit, and decorated, they can all look great in their own way.
On fake trees, real trees, and harming the environment
Between artificial and live trees, which is greener? You may not be surprised to learn that within the industry, there is no consensus answer: The American Christmas Tree Association and the National Christmas Tree Association, which represent the artificial-tree and live-tree industries, respectively, both claim the âgreenerâ title.
But an in-depth 2009 life-cycle report on the subject (PDF) gave the edge firmly to live trees, finding that an artificial tree would have to be used for 20 years before its carbon impact fell below that of buying a live tree annually over the same time frame. A more recent look at the topic by The New York Times reached similar conclusions.
Artificial trees are manufactured mostly in China, where environmental laws tend to be less stringent. In addition, the study did not take into account the environmental cost of producing the raw materialsâsteel and plasticsâthat the trees are made of, nor the cost of shipping them across the ocean, noted Travis Wagner, professor in the Department of Environmental Science and Policy at the University of Southern Maine. Lastly, artificial trees cannot be recycled because itâs too difficult to separate the various materials, so they wind up in landfills when they reach the end of their working lives.
Live trees can be sustainably farmed and harvested, they absorb carbon while growing, and they provide some measure of wildlife habitat. Although live-tree farms do contribute to the consequences of fertilizer and pesticide use, they add value to land that might otherwise be valuable only to developers. At the end of their lives, live trees can be ârecycledâ in a number of ways, such as by being turned into mulch, used to stabilize sand dunes, or even submerged in lakes to create fish habitat.
But as the 2009 study pointed out, driving a gas-powered car just a few hundred miles produces more greenhouse gases than producing a typical artificial Christmas tree. So compared with the cumulative environmental cost of everyday activities and consumption, a fake tree isnât much more than a blip.
This article was edited by Harry Sawyers.
Meet your guide
Tim Heffernan
Tim Heffernan is a senior staff writer focusing on air and water quality and home energy efficiency. A former writer for The Atlantic, Popular Mechanics, and other national magazines, he joined Wirecutter in 2015. He owns three bikes and zero derailleurs.
Further reading
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Christmas Decorating Supplies to Deck the Halls, Walls, Porch, and More
Between the tree, the lights, tools, and accessories, weâve got your home-decoration needs covered this Christmas.
A string of Christmas lights against a pink background, with three glittery ornaments nearby.
The Best Christmas Lights
Our recommendations for indoor, outdoor, LED, and incandescent Christmas lights.
A decorated Christmas tree with presents.
How to Decorate Your Christmas Tree Like a Pro
Hereâs how to hack your holiday setup, from the number of lights you actually need to the Christmas tree stand you can set up with just one set of hands.
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How Weâd Get a Smart Christmas Tree at the Last Minute
Hereâs how weâd combine a tree, lights, and smart controls to make the ultimate custom Christmas tree.
The Best Christmas Lights
By Doug Mahoney and Thom DunnUpdated November 20, 2023
Save
A string of Christmas lights against a pink background, with three glittery ornaments nearby.
Photo: Michael Hession
FYI
Weâve been testing the Govee Permanent Outdoor Lights, and plan to add them as a new pick. Weâve added details to our What to look forward to section.
November 2023
Christmas lights bring a unique glimmering warmth to your holiday seasonâor your backyard, your favorite dive bar, or really anywhere else, for that matter. After more than 100 hours of researching, interviewing experts, and testing more than 25 different string light sets, we believe GEâs Energy Smart Colorite LED Miniature Lights (available in strands of 150 bulbs in multicolor or warm white) offer a combination of light quality, color accuracy, and wide availability that has been unmatched among competitors since we began recommending GEâs Colorite strands in 2014.
Everything we recommend
Our pick
GE Energy Smart Colorite 150-Light LED Multicolor Miniature Lights
The best holiday string lights
These lights have a color quality that nearly matches that of traditional incandescents, but theyâre safer and more durable, and they should last at least 10 years.
Buying Options
Buy from Lowe's
GE Energy Smart Colorite 150-Light LED Warm White Miniature Lights
The best holiday string lights
These white lights, available on a strand of 150, nearly match the look of traditional incandescents, but theyâre safer and more durable, and they should last at least 10 years.
Buying Options
$9 from Lowe's
Runner-up
Christmas Designers T5 Smooth LED Christmas Lights
For cooler tones
The color quality of these lights (particularly the warm white) isnât as good as that of the GE strands, but theyâre still better than the rest.
Buying Options
$13 from Christmas Designers
Also great
Christmas Lights Etc Kringle Traditions Wide-Angle 5mm Multicolor Outdoor LED Christmas Tree Lights
The best outdoor lights
These lights are bright, durable, and completely waterproof, with thick and sturdy wires that retain their shape and wonât unravel in the wind and rain.
Buying Options
$20 from Amazon
$25 from Home Depot
Also great
Christmas Lights Etc 100 Clear Christmas Tree Mini Lights
The best incandescent lights
These warm incandescents look classic, but they're less durable and less efficient than our pick, and they wonât last as long.
Buying Options
$16 from Christmas Lights Etc
$25 from Amazon
Upgrade pick
Pro-Christmas C9 Light Line Kit
For a bigger, brighter, better outdoor display
With larger bulbs and a wire that can be easily cut and adjusted as needed, the Pro-Christmas C9 Light Line kit is your best bet for outdoor lighting.
Buying Options
$2 from Christmas Designers
Upgrade pick
Twinkly Generation II Smart RGB-W LED String Lights
The best smart Christmas lights for all occasions
With 16 million color choices and a library of customizable animations and effects, the Twinklys are incredibly versatile. But they are expensive, and the app could use some work.
Buying Options
$115 from Amazon
$164 from Christmas Designers
Our pick
GE Energy Smart Colorite 150-Light LED Multicolor Miniature Lights
The best holiday string lights
These lights have a color quality that nearly matches that of traditional incandescents, but theyâre safer and more durable, and they should last at least 10 years.
Buy from Lowe's
GE Energy Smart Colorite 150-Light LED Warm White Miniature Lights
The best holiday string lights
These white lights, available on a strand of 150, nearly match the look of traditional incandescents, but theyâre safer and more durable, and they should last at least 10 years.
$9 from Lowe's
Like all LED models, the GE Colorite lights are safer, more durable, and longer lasting than traditional incandescent lights, and they barely draw any electricity at all. Among the LEDs we looked at, we found that the GE Coloriteâs hues of warm white and especially multicolor closely matched those of traditional incandescents. They also have a tidy wire that doesnât curl or twist, simplifying the task of draping them through a tree or storing them in the off-season. The bulbs should last for at least 10 holiday seasons, and you can replace individual bulbs if they go out (or you can just leave those; the rest of the strand will stay lit). Although you can use the Colorite sets outdoors, we think theyâre best for indoor use, since the bulbs arenât completely watertight. Overall, these lights offer better benefits and have fewer drawbacks than any other indoor lights we tested.
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Runner-up
Christmas Designers T5 Smooth LED Christmas Lights
For cooler tones
The color quality of these lights (particularly the warm white) isnât as good as that of the GE strands, but theyâre still better than the rest.
$13 from Christmas Designers
The GE lights have sold out quickly the past few years, so if that happens again, we recommend the Christmas Designers T5 Smooth LED Christmas Lights (available in warm white, multicolor, or solid color). In our tests the multicolor lights looked as good as those from GE, while the warm white lights had a cooler tone that was a little further from the coziness of an incandescent.
Also great
Christmas Lights Etc Kringle Traditions Wide-Angle 5mm Multicolor Outdoor LED Christmas Tree Lights
The best outdoor lights
These lights are bright, durable, and completely waterproof, with thick and sturdy wires that retain their shape and wonât unravel in the wind and rain.
$20 from Amazon
$25 from Home Depot
For outdoor use, we recommend the Christmas Lights Etc Kringle Traditions Wide-Angle 5mm Outdoor LED Christmas Tree Lights, available in white, multicolor, or single color in a variety of lengths and bulb spacings. These lights offer all the benefits of LEDs as well as a design that makes each bulb impervious to moisture for weeks in the snowy, sleety, rainy outdoorsâwe confirmed that by leaving a lit set submerged in a water-filled bucket all day. We liked the warmth of the color, the bright light output, and the manageable wires. Due to the unusual design of the wide-angle bulb, the brightness of each changes dramatically depending on where youâre standing, giving the lights texture and depth when theyâre draped over a tree or twisting around a porch post. Because theyâre likely to be exposed to harsh exterior conditions, these lights have a shorter lifespan than indoor LEDs, but you can still expect six or seven seasons out of them. The only major drawback is that theyâre a bit too bright for indoor use. Pro lighting designers and other experts have consistently named this particular type of bulb as the ideal choice for outdoor holiday-lighting displays. If the Christmas Lights Etc lights arenât available, Christmas Designers makes a similar string light thatâs just as good but a little less bright.
Also great
Christmas Lights Etc 100 Clear Christmas Tree Mini Lights
The best incandescent lights
These warm incandescents look classic, but they're less durable and less efficient than our pick, and they wonât last as long.
$16 from Christmas Lights Etc
$25 from Amazon
Last, if youâre not ready to give up the unique warm twinkle of incandescents on an indoor tree, Christmas Lights Etcâs Clear Christmas Tree Mini Lights are our favorites. These mini-light sets emit the warmest overall light, and like our other picks, they have an easy-handling wire. They also cost less than an LED strand, but theyâre not as durable, theyâre less efficient, and they wonât last as longâyou can expect 2,000 to 3,000 hours of use, versus an average life of 20,000 hours for our pick. Thatâs just the bulb life, too, not even taking into account how fragile and easily breakable an incandescent filament is.
Upgrade pick
Pro-Christmas C9 Light Line Kit
For a bigger, brighter, better outdoor display
With larger bulbs and a wire that can be easily cut and adjusted as needed, the Pro-Christmas C9 Light Line kit is your best bet for outdoor lighting.
$2 from Christmas Designers
If you want a bigger bulb to brighten up your walkway, patio, or eaves, the Pro-Christmas C9 Light Line Kit is a reliable and highly customizable choice. These weather-resistant screw-in LEDs are available in every basic color plus warm and cool whites, and you can display those bulbs in any order or pattern that you want. You can also cut the socket string to the exact length you need, depending on the size of your space, and add a âvampire plugâ on either end to keep the electricity flowing. Donât worry â itâs nowhere near as daunting as it sounds. These C9 light lines make for an easy DIY project for any season, and the clips, plugs, bulbs, and strings are all available a la carte as well. They come with a 3-year seasonal warranty, too (assuming three months of use per year). We personally enjoyed the faceted Pro-Christmas bulbs, which produce a nice twinkling effect, but if you prefer smooth bulbs, the company makes those as well. For an incandescent bulb, we recommend the C9 bulbs from Opticore; that company makes LED bulbs that are comparable to the Pro-Christmas bulbs, too. You can even mix-and-match or try out different bulbs, as long as you have a C9 socket string to start.
Upgrade pick
Twinkly Generation II Smart RGB-W LED String Lights
The best smart Christmas lights for all occasions
With 16 million color choices and a library of customizable animations and effects, the Twinklys are incredibly versatile. But they are expensive, and the app could use some work.
$115 from Amazon
$164 from Christmas Designers
If you really want your home to sparkle and shine for the winter holidayâand maybe for other occasions, tooâget the 250-count Twinkly Generation II Smart RGB-W LED String Lights. These Wi-Fiâenabled Christmas lights offer 16 million color choices that can be employed in any number of moving, blinking, multicolored patterns. With the appâs built-in âmappingâ feature, you can even single out individual lights to create custom effects that spiral around your Christmas tree, or your railing, or wherever else you choose to set them up. They are significantly more expensive than most other Christmas lights, but the endless possibilities and weather-resistant construction mean you can also keep them strung up all year round and customize the colors to go with every occasion. You can even sync the flashing lights to move in time with music. As impressive as the Twinkly app might be, it does glitch on occasion, and the user interface could use some improvements, particularly on the mapping feature and the music sync. Still, we expect this software to continue to improve; we even observed some noticeably helpful firmware updates in the course of our testing. And even with the app frustrations, the Twinklys offer enough options that youâll get your moneyâs worthâor at least youâll never get bored. (Also available in a 400-count set that will save you more money per bulb.)
Get more of our Christmas decorating recommendations
Christmas Decorating Supplies to Deck the Halls, Walls, Porch, and More
Christmas Decorating Supplies to Deck the Halls, Walls, Porch, and More
Between the tree, the lights, tools, and accessories, weâve got your home-decoration needs covered this Christmas.
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Looking for something else?
An artificial Christmas tree covered in gold ornements and multicolor lights
Christmas Decorating Supplies to Deck the Halls, Walls, Porch, and More
A set of rainbow holiday light, closeup, in front of a blue background with a green border.
Donât Buy New Cheap Christmas Lights Every Year. Our Favorites Will Last a Decade.
A decorated Christmas tree with presents.
How to Decorate Your Christmas Tree Like a Pro
Close-up of a decorated Christmas Tree.
How Weâd Get a Smart Christmas Tree at the Last Minute
Read more from Gifts
The research
Why you should trust us
How we picked
How we tested
Our pick: GE Energy Smart Colorite LED Miniature Lights
Flaws but not dealbreakers
Runner-up: Christmas Designers T5 Smooth LED Christmas Lights
Also great: Christmas Lights Etc Kringle Traditions Wide-Angle 5mm Outdoor LED Christmas Tree Lights
Also great: Christmas Lights Etc Clear Christmas Tree Mini Lights (incandescent)
Upgrade pick: Pro-Christmas C9 Light Line Kit
Upgrade pick: Twinkly Generation II Smart RGB-W LED String Lights
Other good Christmas lights
What to look forward to
The competition
How to light a tree
Sources
Looking for something else?
An artificial Christmas tree covered in gold ornements and multicolor lights
Christmas Decorating Supplies to Deck the Halls, Walls, Porch, and More
A set of rainbow holiday light, closeup, in front of a blue background with a green border.
Donât Buy New Cheap Christmas Lights Every Year. Our Favorites Will Last a Decade.
A decorated Christmas tree with presents.
How to Decorate Your Christmas Tree Like a Pro
Close-up of a decorated Christmas Tree.
How Weâd Get a Smart Christmas Tree at the Last Minute
Read more from Gifts
Why you should trust us
It wasnât easy to pick out these specific models from the seemingly infinite selection of Christmas lights in the world. But we reached our conclusions with the input of several people who live and breathe lights: Ben Orr, owner of Northern Seasonal Services, who has been professionally installing holiday lighting in the Chicago area since 2005; Jason Woodward, the director of sales and marketing at Christmas Designers, a retailer specializing in holiday lighting; John Strainic, GEâs general manager of North America consumer lighting; and Anthony Krize, vice president of Nicolas Holiday, the brand-management company for GEâs Christmas lights.
We also enlisted the aid of professionals in our testing process to help us assess the color quality of each string light set. In previous years, we consulted Susan Moriarty, executive creative director and founder of the Boston-based creative agency The Soapbox Studio, who has 20 years of experience as an art director, designer, and photographer. For our most recent round of testing, we relied on the eyes of Bridget Collins, the interim lighting and projections supervisor at the Tony Awardârecognized Huntington Theatre Company, a Boston theater where guide co-author Thom Dunn was a writing fellow from 2015 to 2017, as well as Ari Herzig, a professional lighting and projections designer.
How we picked
Many different kinds of Christmas string light bulbs are available, and many people already know what they likeâeven if they donât necessarily know that a type of light is called a C9 or an M5 or anything else. For this guide, however, we focused on the standard nonblinking miniature (or T5) lights. These are the small, traditional, candle-shaped Christmas lights that most people are used to. As this DIY Network article says, even though larger bulbs are growing in popularity, âmini lights have been by far the most popular during the past decade,â and we confirmed this in our conversations with Jason Woodward of Christmas Designers and Anthony Krize of Nicolas Holiday/GE Brands. During our research, we also found that blinking lights represent a very small minority of the available lights, so we stayed with the type that remains lit at all times.
The earliest Christmas lights were incandescentâthat is, they got their glow from a heated filament inside the glass bulb, like any other commercial light bulb. This component creates a nice, warm radiance in the room that many people associate with the holiday season. Since the early 2000s, however, LED Christmas lights have become increasingly popular, and theyâre often easier to find now than the traditional incandescent ones. LEDs tend to cost more than their incandescent counterparts, but they also last longer and use a lot less electricity, and thus produce less heat, which makes them safer overall. As Jason Woodward from Christmas Designers told us, âThe benefits offered by LEDs are almost as significant as the benefits that incandescents provided over candles.â Some people are understandably hesitant to use LEDsâolder or poorly made LEDs can sometimes be too bright or cause a kind of nauseating strobe effect. But the technology has advanced enough in recent years that we feel confident recommending them. However, we still sought out some incandescent options for people who prefer that traditional warmth.
Many LED Christmas lights can work well indoors or outdoors. For outdoor lights, our experts directed us toward a specific style of LED: 5-millimeter wide-angle conicals. The bulbs on these lights are stubby and donât have the homespun look of the small glass candle found on other mini lights. They are much brighter than regular mini lights (both LED and incandescent), and the unique shape of the bulb adds depth and complexity to the lightsâ appearance. As lighting installer Ben Orr of Northern Seasonal Services told us, this shape allows the strand to ârefract the light and create a cool look depending on the angle of view.â Orr continued, âIt appears that some are brighter than others and it adds contrast.â He added that 5 mm wide-angle lights are generally his favorite light. And Christmas Designers, in a video dedicated to the bulbs, says these lights are âby far the most popular set we sell.â
But as with regular LED bulbs, the color of the light is a concern. We figure that if youâre reading this guide, youâre probably interested in replacing an old set of incandescent lightsâbut even if you want something more efficient and durable, you probably donât want to give up the traditional lightsâ familiar warm glow. Unfortunately, that is an issue with LEDs.
Both Orr and Woodward warned us that LEDs simply do not look like incandescents. Due to improvements in technology, many companies manufacture a warm white color that, depending on the quality of the LED, can closely mimic but not fully achieve the pinpoint sparkle of an incandescent. Orr stressed that âLED technology varies throughout the industry, and a warm white from one supplier can vary in hues and color drastically from another.â He even suggested buying strands from a few different manufacturers to compare them and see which hue you like best before making a large purchaseâonce you find something you like, he said, buy from only that manufacturer. Our testing confirmed that there is a tremendous variety in LED color hues, from the fantastic to the terrible.
In selecting the strands we wanted to test, we searched all of the larger online retailers (Amazon, Home Depot, Loweâs, Target, Walmart). Orr told us that he purchases his lights from a specialty retailer, so we also looked at lights from Christmas Designers, Christmas Lights Etc, and Christmas Light Source. These specialty retailers deal only in Christmas lights and focus on the needs of the professional, though they certainly have no problems with a regular shopper purchasing from them. Each store seems to have its own in-house brand of lights, so you wonât see them selling Martha Stewart or GE lights. Weâve found that these companies are extremely knowledgeable about lighting, and in general their items are very nice.
We dismissed companies that had overall poor reviews (Holiday Time), strange or incomplete bulb selections (EcoSmart), or suspiciously low pricing (Home Accents Holiday). Other companies, such as Hometown Evolution and AGPtek, fall more into the general exterior-decor category and donât have a wide selection of Christmas lights. AGPtek, in particular, deals only in solar-powered or battery lights, which are more of a specialty item, and we wanted to concentrate on general tree and exterior lighting.
How we tested
Four large cardboard boxes on a wooden floor, filled with, and surrounded by, Christmas string lights.
Ready to begin testing. Photo: Doug Mahoney
Since 2014, weâve tested dozens of string light sets in both white and multicolor, including standard T5 LEDs, incandescents, and 5 mm wide-angle conical LEDs. For our most recent tests in 2019, we looked at 11 sets of white lights, eight sets of multicolor lights, and one set of color-changing lights. To evaluate all of the sets, we wound and unwound them and arranged them around a home, including wrapping them around poles and draping them over railingsâbasically, we tried to use the lights how theyâre intended to be used.
We then took them to a dedicated black-box theater space at the Huntington Theatre Company in Boston, which has transferred numerous plays to Broadway and Londonâs West End. We set up all the light sets in a pure black space and evaluated them for color temperature and accuracy with the help of the companyâs theatrical lighting supervisor, Bridget Collins. (In previous years weâve relied on similar outside expertise from Susan Moriarty, executive creative director and founder of The Soapbox Studio, also in Boston.) Afterward, we tested the weather impermeability of each set by sinking the lights into a 5-gallon bucket of water and leaving it outside in the cold rain overnight (the temperature didnât drop below freezing). Although this test is a bit extreme, itâs certainly possible that any set of exterior lights will end up in a puddle or draped in a gutter.
Overall, we found that the wire quality has a lot to do with the success of a strand of lights. Some of the tested lights had tidy, close-knit strands of wire, while others were loose and messy. Some wires needed untwisting before use, like an old phone cord, and still others continued to accordion back on themselves no matter how we tried to stretch them out and lay them flat.
Our pick: GE Energy Smart Colorite LED Miniature Lights
Our pick
GE Energy Smart Colorite 150-Light LED Multicolor Miniature Lights
The best holiday string lights
These lights have a color quality that nearly matches that of traditional incandescents, but theyâre safer and more durable, and they should last at least 10 years.
Buy from Lowe's
GE Energy Smart Colorite 150-Light LED Warm White Miniature Lights
The best holiday string lights
These white lights, available on a strand of 150, nearly match the look of traditional incandescents, but theyâre safer and more durable, and they should last at least 10 years.
$9 from Lowe's
GE was the first company in America to sell Christmas string lights, and we think it still makes the best ones overall. GEâs Energy Smart Colorite LED Miniature Lights are available in multicolor and warm white, and they offer all the benefits of LED lights, including high durability, zero heat output, and a long life expectancy. They also produce a warm radiance that closely resembles the classic glow of incandescent bulbs. Thereâs no noticeable flicker as on some other LED lights we tested, which were either too dull or glaringly bright and gave us a headache when they moved. The GE Colorite lights are also well-made and durable, with a tightly wound wire that maintains its memory while still being easy to drape on trees or railings (plus, itâs harder to tangle). GE has relied on the same Christmas lights manufacturer for more than 40 years, and that pedigreeâand qualityâshows. It doesnât hurt that the lights are widely available online and in stores, too.
Two strands of multi-colored Christmas tree lights resting parallel on a wooden surface.
GEâs incandescent (top) and LED (bottom) strands. Photo: Doug Mahoney
When it came to color temperature, the Colorites were the clear winner in our tests. The warm white and multicolor strands both gave off a warm tone that was closer to the overall look of an incandescent strand than what we saw from any of the other LEDs we considered. Itâs not a 100% perfect match from up close, of courseâthe diode illuminates the entire colored bulb from certain angles, unlike in incandescents, which have a pinpoint filament that creates a twinkly, sparkly look. Note, however, that we made this distinction while specifically looking for differences between the bulbs: Once we were about 5 feet away, it became extremely difficult to tell these LEDs apart from the strand of incandescents, and we would be happy to light up our home with them.
Three strands of white lit Christmas lights hanging vertically in the dark.
Three strands of multi-colored lit Christmas lights hanging vertically in the dark.
From left: the Christmas Designers warm white incandescents, the GE Colorite warm white LEDs, and the Christmas Designers warm white T5 Smooth LEDs. Notice how the GE LEDs match the color of the incandescents but not their distinctive and even sparkle. The Christmas Designers LEDs have a cooler color and shine a little brighter. Photo: Doug Mahoney
Three strands of white lit Christmas lights hanging vertically in the dark.
Three strands of multi-colored lit Christmas lights hanging vertically in the dark.
We also liked that the GE Colorite wire strands were easy to manage. In our tests, they were tidy and had a nice flex. Out of the box, the lights unraveled nicely. And unlike other brands we tried, they needed no twisting on our part to stretch and flatten them out. Theyâre durable enough overall that they should be able to withstand the annual boxing and unboxing process without a hitch.
Instead of having a detachable bulb and a separate socket as an incandescent does, these bulbs encase a light-emitting diode in a block of molded plastic. The result still looks like a traditional Christmas light, but itâs harder to knock a bulb out of commission. Although we donât suggest that you jump rope with your strands of LED lights, we do believe that they will be able to handle a drop.
We recommend the GE Colorite lights for indoor use, but they survived our outdoor durability tests, too. If you do end up breaking a bulb, the Constant On feature means the other ones will stay lit until you replace it, which is also possible. When we asked Jason Woodward of Christmas Designers about the lifespan of indoor LEDs, he told us, âHigh-grade LEDs havenât been around long enough to really know how long they will last on an indoor application, but it should be at least 10 years.â That longevity should be good news for anyone who has ever pulled out their incandescent lights from the previous year, found a bunch of them mysteriously half-working or suffering from too many blown bulbs, and ended up throwing several away.
Like other LEDs, the GE Colorite lights emit zero heat when lit, so you can sleep easy while theyâre lighting up your desiccated tree on New Yearâs Eve. Incandescents, on the other hand, produce heat and can get quite hotâalthough newer incandescents are highly unlikely to ever start a tree fire, they could give an unsuspecting toddler quite a jolt. The Colorite sets have such low energy use that you can string together up to 25 of them without a problem (and even thatâs pretty ambitious for most homes). The GE Colorite LEDs are also rectified (sometimes called âfull waveâ), which means they blink fast enough that they shouldnât have any of those nausea-inducing flicker problems that some other LEDs have. This means you can use them with a dimmer or a lighting controller, too.
The GE Colorite lights generally cost around 20Âą per light, which is right where most good-quality LEDs land. Theyâre sometimes sold online under the name Nicolas Holiday, but donât worry, theyâre still the same lights. Either way, theyâre a great value for their durability and longevity; there are sets that we bought in 2014 that are still going strong, although the wire strands have loosened a bit.
Flaws but not dealbreakers
Although the GE Energy Smart Colorite LED Miniature Lights impressed us more than the others in both quality and overall color, we did discover a few drawbacks to these lights.
First, they donât have stackable plugs, the kind of design where the male plug has a female outlet on the back side of it. With stackable plugs, you can piggyback multiple strands directly on the same outletâa useful feature for outdoor displays where you might be lighting, for example, bushes in opposite directions on either side of a single outlet, but less of a necessity indoors. The lack of such a plug design could make for a crowded wall outlet, but a small power strip will solve the problem. You can still attach the Colorite strands end to end, just as you would any other set of Christmas lights.
A close-up of two different plug types on two different strands of Christmas lights. The plug on the left is marked with blue painter's tape.
The GE Colorite strands have a regular plug (left), whereas many competitors, including our runner-up pick, the Christmas Designers T5 Smooth LED Christmas Lights (right), have a stackable plug. The stackable design allows you to have multiple strands on a single outlet. Photo: Doug Mahoney
Christmas-light purists may be dismayed at the look of the purple GE Colorite bulb. In our tests, on the incandescent strands the purple bulb was a deep reddish-pink color, but on the Colorite strand it was a bright, vivid purple that was slightly lavender and almost a little âcartoony.â Once the strands are wound around a tree, we donât think most people will pick up on this difference, but if youâre color sensitive, itâs something to be aware of. Our runner-up lights donât have a purple bulb, so they donât have the same issue.
Finally, weâve discovered that Christmas lights are manufactured on a seasonal basis, so when theyâre gone, theyâre gone. For the past few years, these GE lights have sold out in early December and remained unavailable for the rest of the season. Unfortunately, this also means that, if you have to wait a year to buy another set, the color temperature might not match exactly to the lights you bought last year. This can be particularly noticeable with white bulbs. âThe reality is that Christmas light set making is not a year round production run and you are not getting LEDs 12 months a year from a supplier on that rolling, consistent basis,â Anthony Krize from Nicolas Holiday, who oversees the GE brand, told us over email. So while a single set of Christmas lights will look consistent, you may notice slight variations across different sets from different years (although they should all still fall within the âwarm whiteâ color range of 2700 to 3200 Kelvin).
Runner-up: Christmas Designers T5 Smooth LED Christmas Lights
Runner-up
Christmas Designers T5 Smooth LED Christmas Lights
For cooler tones
The color quality of these lights (particularly the warm white) isnât as good as that of the GE strands, but theyâre still better than the rest.
$13 from Christmas Designers
If the GE Colorites are unavailable, we also like the Christmas Designers T5 Smooth LED Christmas Lights, which are available in warm white, multicolor, and solid color. In our tests, the Christmas Designers lights were very similar to the GE Colorites but slightly less bright and less warm. This was true for the white lights as well as the multicolor lights, particularly the yellow and orange (the Christmas Designers lights donât have a purple bulb). The wires that connect these lights are also tightly wound, which makes them just as easy to wrap up as they are to unravel and maneuver around a tree. On average, the Christmas Designers lights are more expensive than the GE ones, but theyâre well-made and durable, and the company offers bulk discounts, which can start to even things up depending on the size of your order.
The most obvious way that the Christmas Designers lights stand out from GEâs Colorites is that they have a stackable plug with both an input and output, which allows you to start multiple strands of lights from the same outlet. Unlike the GE Colorites, the Christmas Designers bulbs are made of a single piece of molded plastic. The upside is that this design makes it even harder for dirt and water to infiltrate the bulb and damage the circuitry; these bulbs are likely to be even more resilient outside than the GE bulbs. The downside is that, if a bulb does break, you wonât be able to replace it (but the rest of the string will still work). Otherwise, the LEDs contained within that plastic bulb offer all the same benefits as the LEDs from GEâlow energy use, no heat output, and a longer life overall.
Christmas Designers lights are also uniquely available in solid-color strands in addition to the standard warm white and multicolor. They may be a better option if youâre looking to customize a display with green, red, blue, or pure white lights. This is because the company mainly sells to professional installers, although regular-shopper sales have increased significantly in recent years. As Jason Woodward, the companyâs director of sales and marketing, told us, âThe quickest growing part of our business are the residential, what I call our âChristmas enthusiastsââpeople who are tired of the Big Box retail junk and are looking for a step up, something that will last longer and look good.â If youâre looking for that kind of sturdy constructionâor if the GE Colorites are sold out, which tends to happen closer to the holidaysâthe Christmas Designers T5 lights are a great alternative.
Also great: Christmas Lights Etc Kringle Traditions Wide-Angle 5mm Outdoor LED Christmas Tree Lights
Also great
Christmas Lights Etc Kringle Traditions Wide-Angle 5mm Multicolor Outdoor LED Christmas Tree Lights
The best outdoor lights
These lights are bright, durable, and completely waterproof, with thick and sturdy wires that retain their shape and wonât unravel in the wind and rain.
$20 from Amazon
$25 from Home Depot
The Christmas Lights Etc Kringle Traditions Wide-Angle 5mm Outdoor LED Christmas Tree Lights give off a bright, warm color that is particularly perfect for the outdoors, whether youâre decorating a window box, a tree, a wreath, a railing, or a roofline. Christmas Lights Etcânot to be confused with Christmas Designersâalso focuses largely on pro installations and thus offers a wide variety of lighting options, including white, multicolor, and solid single colors, with different bulb quantities and spacings. Like other LEDs, these lights cost more than incandescents, but because theyâre specifically designed to withstand long-term exposure to moisture, your investment will be protected if they end up dropping into a puddle or a wet gutter while braving the elements in a cold, wet December. They also have a clean and tight wire, which in our tests made handling, hanging, and storing them easy. And because their electrical requirements are so low, you can connect a whopping 43 strands and run them on a single outlet before worrying about tripping a breaker; this design reduces the need for extension cords, which can be a big hidden cost with larger exterior displays. These Christmas Lights Etc outdoor lights are slightly brighter than our previous pick from Christmas Designers, but the two are otherwise similarâif you find the Christmas Designers version available in a color you prefer or at a better price, go for it.
The odd, stubby shape of the 5 mm wide-angle bulbs gives these lights a distinctive appearance. In addition to the fact that theyâre already brighter than many regular LED mini lights, these wide-angle bulbs also emit a different level of brightness depending on the angle from which you view them. In the right situation, this design can almost replicate the âtwinklyâ look of incandescent lights that many people enjoy.
Two strands of blue Christmas lights with, each with differently shaped bulbs, setting parallel to each other on a wooden surface..
The Christmas Designers 5mm Wide Angle Conical LED (a former pick, top) and the GE Colorite LED (bottom). Notice the unusual shape of the wide-angle bulb and also how the bulb and socket are molded into a single piece, making such lights ideal for exterior use. Photo: Doug Mahoney
The Christmas Lights Etc wide-angle lights have what are called molded bulbsâthat is, each bulb is a completely sealed, one-piece unit. There is no separating the bulb from the wire, and thus no way for moisture or grime to work into the socket, which makes them even better suited for outdoor displays. We tested this design by submerging the lights in a bucket of water outdoors overnight, and at no point did the lights show any ill effects from the test. However, this molded design also means that you canât replace an individual light if any of them fail (although the rest of the string will keep working). Overall, we think this is a worthwhile trade-off for a bright set of lights that is likely to last even longer than other LED string lights. Just try not to step on the bulbs, and you should be fine.
Lit multi-colored Christmas lights submerged in a bucket of water.
The Christmas Designers wide-angle multicolored lights, at some point during hour six of being fully submerged in a bucket of water. We put the Christmas Lights Etc lights through the same test in 2019, and they survived just as well. Photo: Doug Mahoney
Like the other lights from pro-installer brands, the Christmas Lights Etc wide-angle LEDs have a great wire. In our tests, they were easy to unravel and didnât get tangled up like other, lower-quality lights such as the ones from Home Accent Holiday; in fact, the Christmas Lights Etc outdoor lights come in a balled-up clump when they arrive in the package. (We still suggest you wrap them up somewhat carefully when youâre done with them, just to prolong their life.) The neat organization of the wires gave our test strands a high-quality feel, which also gave us confidence that theyâd keep running for years regardless of the weather or (most) other abuse they might endure. These lights donât have issues with flickering, even when used with dimmers.
If you have great ambitions for your Christmas display, Christmas Lights Etc also offers a bulk discount for its outdoor lightsâthe more you buy, the less you pay for each individual set. Although you can use these as indoor lights, we personally found them a bit too bright, and both of the lighting professionals we consulted, in different years, agreed: Susan Moriarty from The Soapbox Studio said, âI donât want to have to wear sunglasses while Iâm looking at my Christmas tree.â If you like your tree to be especially bright, these Christmas Lights Etc lights are a great option, but we recommend that you purchase a single strand first and see for yourself before you take the plunge.
If by some chance the Christmas Lights Etc outdoor lights are unavailable, Christmas Designers sells nearly identical strands of 5 mm wide-angle bulbs in white, multicolor, or solid single colors that are a little dimmer but otherwise just as good.
Also great: Christmas Lights Etc Clear Christmas Tree Mini Lights (incandescent)
Also great
Christmas Lights Etc 100 Clear Christmas Tree Mini Lights
The best incandescent lights
These warm incandescents look classic, but they're less durable and less efficient than our pick, and they wonât last as long.
$16 from Christmas Lights Etc
$25 from Amazon
LED Christmas lights are better for most people because theyâre more efficient and more durable, but if you canât lose the distinctive and traditional look of incandescents for indoor use, we recommend Christmas Lights Etcâs Clear Christmas Tree Mini Lights. These lights offer a noticeable difference in color qualityâtheyâre not the brightest, but they have a certain warmth and radiance that even the best LEDs struggle to match. Itâs the kind of color temperature that immediately sparks memories of cold winter evenings by the fire (or the dive bar). The heated filament inside the bulb gives them that starry sparkle. However, itâs also designed to wear out over time to the point of self-destruction.
In our tests, the wires on the Christmas Lights Etc incandescent lights were tight and organized, and once we stretched them out, they lay flat and straight with no issues. Incandescents will never last as long as LEDs, but the wiring and wrapping on these make them feel sturdy and resilient enough to last for several seasons. They even survived when we submerged them in a water bucket and left it outdoors overnight, although we still donât think theyâre the best choice for outdoor useâitâs too easy for water and dirt to get caught in the sockets. If anything does go wrong and a bulb breaks or dies, incandescent lights are easy and affordable to replace: At this writing, theyâre about 10Âą a bulb, which is about half as much as a single LED bulb. Incandescent lights also use more energy, so you can connect only up to five strands of the Christmas Lights Etc incandescents as opposed to 20-plus strands of LED string lights. But if a bulb does go out, the rest of the strand remains lit.
Like most items from Christmas Lights Etc, the incandescent strands are available in a variety of bulb spacings and colors, including multicolor and solid single colors. (We tested only the standard clear white lights.) If theyâre unavailable, our previous pick from Christmas Designers is similar and still very good, although that company no longer sells a warm white incandescent option.
Upgrade pick: Pro-Christmas C9 Light Line Kit
Upgrade pick
Pro-Christmas C9 Light Line Kit
For a bigger, brighter, better outdoor display
With larger bulbs and a wire that can be easily cut and adjusted as needed, the Pro-Christmas C9 Light Line kit is your best bet for outdoor lighting.
$2 from Christmas Designers
If you want the most robust outdoor Christmas lighting possible, and youâre willing to put in a little DIY work, we recommend the Pro-Christmas C9 Light Line Kit, which comes with everything you need to create a fully customized C9 light display for your home. C9 lights use an E17, or âintermediateâ bulb base, which makes them smaller than a standard lightbulb, but larger than a candelabra or your average Christmas lights. These bigger bulbs are available in a variety of colors, which means they work just as well for summer patio mood lighting as they do for winter holidays. In addition to the bulbs themselves, the Pro-Christmas C9 Light Line Kit also comes with an empty socket string or wire plus several vampire plugs (although you can buy all these parts separately as well, for maximum customization). Itâs a surprisingly easy setup process, tooâall you have to do is cut the socket string to whatever length you need, then snap the vampire plugs on the end of the wire and plug them in just like you would with any other light strand. You can screw in whichever C9 bulbs you want to use at any given time; you can even swap out different colors to suit the different seasons. If anything goes wrong, they come with a 3 year warranty, too, although thatâs based on an assumption that youâre only using them for 90 days per year (all the more reason to change out the bulbs to fit your seasonal display!). If you donât like the twinkly effect produced by the faceted C9 bulbs, Pro-Christmas also sells smooth bulbs with the same socket size; you can even mix-and-match or try out different bulbs on the same socket string to start. If you donât like the colors from Pro-Christmas, or you prefer incandescent lights, Opticore C9 bulbs are just about as good, and work on the same empty socket strings.
The idea of messing with electrical wiring might be (understandably) daunting for some people. But what sets the Pro-Christmas Light Line Kits apart from other C9 bulb sets is just how easy they are to set-up and use. You donât have to worry about stripping the ends of the wire, or wrapping the positive/negative ends around the proper leads. You can just trim the socket strings with a standard set of wire cutters. Even the vampire plugs are easy to use, despite their strangely scary-sounding name. All you have to do is place the wire in the plug, then slide the top piece on. The metal âvampireâ teeth will automatically cut through the insulated casing to make contact with the wire inside, and voilĂ âyouâve got yourself a freshly trimmed Christmas light strand with a plug on either end (these plugs are available in both male or female ends, and you can string several socket lines together, just as you would with other Christmas lights). You donât even have to worry about excess wiring, or haphazardly draping your light strands to contain them in a specific spot on the house. If you mess up the cutting, or anything changes, you can always add on another plug end and expand your strand from there. Christmas Designers has some handy videos that could help troubleshoot any problems, as well as a dedicated customer support centerâanother feature that sets them apart from the competition.
The C9 bulbs from Pro-Christmas come in the full range of basic colorsâred, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purpleâas well as the standard cool and warm whites. You can mix and match these on your empty socket strand as you please. The colors arenât quite as warm as what youâd get with an incandescent bulb, but theyâre still bright, rich, and bold, with none of that obnoxious buzzing or blinking that you get from cheaper LEDs. You can even set them on a dimmer without any of that awful flickering either. Because LEDs require less heat than incandescent bulbs, these Pro-Christmas C9s are able to use a shatter-resistant plastic housing, which means you donât have to worry about a gust of wind causing tiny shards of glass to smash against your homeâalways a bonus. They also have an Ingress Protection rating of 65, which means theyâre dust-tight and able to withstand water jets from any direction (within reason). Theyâre slightly more energy efficient than other similar C9 lights we tested, too, with each individual bulb only pulling about a half watt of electricity. This isnât a huge difference compared to other models like the Opticore bulbs, which only used 0.8 watts, but itâs still worth pointing outâthatâs not a lot of energy for a very bright bulb.
All of the pre-made Pro-Christmas Light Line Kits available from Christmas Designers have faceted bulbs, with clusters of flattened surfaces that cause the light to reflect in a sort of gem-like shimmer. The facets on the Pro-Christmas lights also go all the way down to the base, making them stand out from C9 bulbs we tested from Minleon and Brightown, which had about â
â of smooth plastic near the bottom. While we think this twinkly effect is a nice touch, we recognize that not everyone wants that same textured lighting on their home. Fortunately, the company also sells the same colors a la carteâminus purpleâas standard smooth bulbs, which work on the same empty socket lines, whether you buy them individually or as part of that pre-made kit.
Upgrade pick: Twinkly Generation II Smart RGB-W LED String Lights
A smart phone using an app to program a nearby lit multicolor length of Twinkly Generation II Smart RGB-W LED String Lights, our upgrade pick for best Christmas lights.
Photo: Michael Hession
Upgrade pick
Twinkly Generation II Smart RGB-W LED String Lights
The best smart Christmas lights for all occasions
With 16 million color choices and a library of customizable animations and effects, the Twinklys are incredibly versatile. But they are expensive, and the app could use some work.
$115 from Amazon
$164 from Christmas Designers
The Wi-Fiâenabled Twinkly Generation II Smart RGB-W LED String Lights are the most robust and versatile Christmas lights weâve ever tested. Theyâre also the most expensive. But if youâre truly serious about Christmasâand maybe other holidays tooâa Twinkly set is worth the cost (the cost-per-bulb also drops significantly if you upgrade to the 400-light set). Other companies, including GE, have tried to create color-changing lights, but none of them have come close to what Twinkly has done with these lights: 16 million color choices that can be applied to a potentially endless number of patterns and lighting effects, all of which can be controlled and customized through an app. Youâre not limited to the standard solid-white or multicolor options that blink on and offâyou can create a pulsating glow, or alternating flickers of different colors, or even a scrolling motion with the colors of your favorite sports team. With one tap, you can set your lights to mimic the glimmer of falling snow or the swelling of a fire or even the Italian flag (the company is based in Italy; but you can easily sub in a different flag too). While the technology isnât absolutely perfect yet, itâs still pretty impressive and offers much wider versatility than standard Christmas lights. Theyâre also weather-resistant, so they can work indoors or outdoors; we tested them outside for a full year and were impressed with how well they endured through record-breaking heat, rain, and cold.
The Twinkly setup process is fairly simple and straightforward, at least as far as it is with any smart-home device. Download the Twinkly app, and it walks you through everything you need. In case your home Wi-Fi network doesnât reach out to where youâve set them up, the lights even come with their own built-in (internet-less) Wi-Fi network so you can still control them through the app. Once theyâre set up, you have the option to âmapâ your Christmas lights by holding up your phone camera to them like youâre taking a picture. You can do this two-dimensionally (if your lights are on a railing, for example), three-dimensionally (all around the Christmas tree, for example), or not at all. The app intuitively identifies which bulbs are where and uses this information to plot customizable animations across your light display; you can even choose one individual light to make a different color from the rest. As professional lighting/projection designer Ari Herzig told us, âYouâre not paying for the lightsâyouâre paying for the software.â They also told us that a similar process on a standard professional lighting board would probably take about four to six hours.
A room decorated using Twinkly Smart String Lights, including a Christmas tree with red and white lights forming a candy cane twist, plus a red and white design on the mantlepiece.
A mix of preset and programmable patterns lets you customize the look of a tree in any way imaginableâwhy stop at hanging candy canes when you can make the entire tree a giant candy cane? Photo: Twinkly
While this mapping process is a remarkable technological achievement, itâs also somewhat cumbersome and unreliable. It gets confused if there are other lights nearbyâincluding other Twinkly setsâand sometimes misinterprets reflections on the glass on a light bulb. Space restrictions might force you to map at awkward angles, too, which also disorients the software. The user interface for the mapping feature is similarly confusing. Be warned: The app will rotate and allow you to map your lights in landscape mode, but then it compresses them back into a confusingly squished portrait mode view. You canât zoom in to get a closer look at the individual bulbs in a cluster of lights, either. Weâve seen tremendous improvements in this feature since we started testing the Twinklys in 2020, but they still have a ways to go. Unless youâre very particular about some highly specified lighting animation plans that youâve devised, you can still accomplish a lot with this. And even a pretty-good mapping is going to look cooler than anything you would achieve with an analog light display.
As with any new technology, the personalized customer service you get from a specialized retailer can save you from some serious headaches. Christmas Designers even has a dedicated team to walk you through any setup issues you might encounter. If you do end up purchasing through a big box store like Amazon, however, Twinkly does have a support section on their website as well. On the bright side, once your Twinklys are set up, you donât have to do it again; Wirecutter product manager Samuel Roth has been using the same mapping setup for three years, despite some initial frustrations.
You can opt for static colors, animated color changes, and other effects, spread across a near-infinite array of optionsâTwinkly claims a total of 16 million color choices. Video: Michael Hession
If you donât want to deal with the mapping process, the default Twinkly lighting options are still robust enough that you likely wonât get bored. There are pre-programmed light animations that mimic falling snow, fireworks, sliding doors, spirals, and even crazy lines and snakes (a single off-color trail of lights moving through an otherwise solid-colored sea), and you can choose just about any color you can fathomâor at least any color you can pick out from the color wheel with a carefully pointed finger. Depending on the effect, you can also customize the speed and brightness of the movements or changing colors, and whether or not the lights stay lit, or pulsate, or flicker, et cetera. The app has a âstoreâ where you can download new effects, too. Youâll even find some holiday-specific offerings there, such as pulsing hearts, prancing reindeer, countdowns and fireworks to ring in the New year, and a roving Bat-signal for Batman Day â although youâll probably need several sets of Twinklys with perfect spacing and ideal viewing angles if you truly wish to strike fear in the hearts of any superstitious or cowardly criminals. Similarly, things like âSantaâs Magic Sleigh Runâ will work better when theyâre set up on an actual Christmas tree. Think of each light as a pixel: more of them will give you better resolution and a clearer image.
Some of the Twinkly effects also come with a music sync option that uses the built-in mic on your phone. The company sells a separate music dongle as well, which lets you sync multiple strands together, using an algorithm that learns the rhythms of a song in real time. Like the rest of the Twinkly software, this is simultaneously imperfect and yet far more impressive than it has any right to be. You probably donât need to invest in this feature, however, unless youâre really into serious multimedia displays.
Custom-mapping via the Twinkly app lets you designate certain colors for specific parts of the tree. Getting this to function perfectly can be tricky, but when it works, itâs amazing. Video: Michael Hession
As far as color fidelity goes, the Twinkly lights are generally phenomenal. Itâs hard to give specificsâwe couldnât test all 16 million color optionsâbut the fact that you can select a custom shade and brilliance already sets them apart from other Christmas lights. Our only real complaint was the âpureâ white, which is glaring at full brightness and sometimes flickered or buzzed when used in conjunction with certain effects (notably with the horizontal flag effect). Luckily, this is easy to avoid: Simply open the color selector in the app, pick a shade of yellow or blue (depending on your preference for warm or cool white), then drag the black-white slider down so itâs almost all the way to the white side of the spectrum, but not quite. (We actually appreciated the fact that we could create a custom warm white tone based on our personal preferences, too.)
Unlike most Christmas lights, the Twinkly lights canât piggyback on one another to create longer strands. Theyâre also wired in a Y shape, with the plug extending from the center, with the lights split evenly to the left and right from there. This is different from what most people have come to expect with Christmas lights, and it might actually help them fit better on some houses. The only downside is that itâs harder to ball them up for storage without tangling the two arms together. But if you wrap the two ends separatelyâor just never take your Twinkly lights downâyou should be fine.
Like with the mapping feature, the app in general could use a little UI improvement. The customization options arenât always consistent; and whichever custom settings you save on your device arenât accessible from, say, your spouseâs device, even if you log into both apps with the same account Both the app and the lights occasionally crash as well, though itâs not clear whether this is a RAM issue, a software bug, or just a result of an overeager Wirecutter tester deliberately trying to break something. Sometimes your Twinklys will even glitch rapidly back-and-forth between two different settings, which can be annoying, disconcerting, or worse, especially for people with photosensitive conditions or who are prone to seizures. This is a rare occurrence that only tends to happen when youâre messing around with the settings, and itâs easy to remedy by applying a new setting or simply resetting the lights. But itâs something to be aware of. Even with these glitches however, the Twinkly technology is still quite impressive and itâs likely to keep getting better with each successive firmware update. After a year of testing, weâve seen the app go through a lot of updates and improvements; while itâs still not perfect, it does keep getting better. The Twinklys are supposedly compatible with Alexa and Google Home as well, but the integration isnât very reliable yet either. We think youâre better off just using a smart plug or the appâs own built-in scheduling function.
One pro-tip we can offer on the app: if you plan on using it across multiple devices, itâs better to create a new login and password that you can share instead of using your existing Apple or Google credentials. Otherwise, one user is likely going to have to relinquish control to everyone else, or else give up their device and/or credentials to their kids/partner/roommate/etc whenever they want to play with the lights. Even if youâre not concerned about privacy issues, that can still get anything.
The Twinkly lights are not only an excellent option for Christmas, but theyâre a fantastic tool for lighting design overall. At around $125 for 250 lights, they may seem like a steep investment (the 400-count set is a better deal at around $175). But the technology will keep improving, and they also provide you with a year-round decoration that can be customized for any occasion, and still hold up against the rain, sleet, or snow. And that means you can impress the neighbors even more, without any additional setup or cleanup. We left our lights up on our outdoor patio for a full year, and not only did they hold under extreme weather, but we also had several strangers tell us how much they looked forward to our light displays. This happened one day when the Twinkly app was being particularly glitchy and frustrating. An elderly man told us that he walked by with his dog every day, and he actually thanked us for giving him something to look forward to during the long COVID winter. It was a nice reminder that sometimes itâs worth enduring a little buggy software.
Other good Christmas lights
If youâre looking for larger, C9-style outdoor Christmas lights with smart functionality, we recommend the Govee Smart Outdoor RGBIC LED String Lights (also available with dimmable warm white). These Govee lights are noticeably brighter and with more robust colors than the equivalent large outdoor smart bulbs from Twinkly. Unlike the Twinklys, which require a mapping process to identify the location of each bulb, the Govee app automatically syncs with the light strand, so you can pick out individual bulbs and change them however youâd like. This is the only part of the Govee app we really like, however. The preset lighting options are less interesting and harder to customize than the default patterns in the Twinkly app. While you can theoretically achieve all kinds of neat lighting displays in 16 million colors through the Govee app, the amount of options to tap through outside of the defaults is simply overwhelming. Random color bursts are fun and easy; detailed patterns, or intricate shapes and symmetry like the Twinkly defaults, not so much. But the Govee lights do look great, if you just want a few different fun color options to illuminate your patio.
When we first began testing C9 bulbs in 2022, we also looked at lights from Opticore and Minleon. The Opticore bulbs were pretty similar to our Pro-Christmas picks, and would make a great alternative if those arenât available. The company sells incandescent C9 bulbs that look pretty good, too, so if your heart is set on that analog warmth, then Opticoreâs the way to go. The Minleon lights were also comparable to the Pro-Christmas bulbs, and would make a fine replacement if no Pro-Christmas lights were available; our only real complaints about the Minleons were that the color temperature was slightly cooler, and that the faceted pattern on the bulbs stops about â
â from the base, making for a mildly clumsier twinkling effect.
We previously recommended the GE Color Choice Multi or Warm White Multi Function LEDs as an also-great pick for people who want color-changing versatility. While theyâre still a good option, theyâre nothing compared with what Twinkly is offering. A small control box near the plug lets you choose between eight settings: white, multicolor, or both, in a variety of flashing and steady lighting options. However, the colors arenât as good as what you get with a dedicated white or multicolor string light set; the white in particular is more neutral and bland than warm, and the green is somewhat limelike. And although the lights themselves are generally safe for outdoor use, the control box can malfunction in the wrong (read: wet) conditions. But, if you want the basic functionality of color-changing lights without spending $100-plus dollars, and donât mind a few more compromises, the GE Color Choice lights are still a safe bet.
The Christmas Designers 5mm Wide Angle Conical LED Christmas Lights were our previous pick for outdoor lights. The colors were slightly less brilliant than those of the 5 mm wide-angle lights from Christmas Lights Etc in our tests, and the wiring is thicker, but theyâre otherwise nearly identical. If the Christmas Lights Etc 5 mm wide-angle outdoor lights are unavailable, or you find the Christmas Designers lights at a better price, theyâre a great alternative.
In 2021, we tested the GE StayBright Wide Angle Warm White LED String Lights, which are similar to the other wide-angle âfairy lightsâ weâve tested from Christmas Designers and Christmas Lights, Etc. However, the bulbs are only 3mm wide, rather than 5mm, which makes them feel less bright, even though theyâre more closely spaced than the other wide-angle lights we recommend. Still, the color quality is nice, and theyâre certainly well-made lights, with a sturdy and a 2-year warranty. If you canât find wide-angle lights you like in stock from Christmas Designers or Christmas Lights, Etc., these are a good alternative.
What to look forward to
Weâve been enjoying the new Govee Permanent Outdoor Lights, and think they make for a good alternative to our Twinkly upgrade pick. Like the Twinklys, the Govee lights come with built-in smart home capabilities, including a robust app that comes with plenty of preset designs that cover all the major holidays (and plenty of moods as well). The Govee app isnât quite as user-friendly as the Twinkly app; instead of mapping out the lights after youâve positioned them, for example, the Govee app just sort of lets you manually tap and change each individual bulb or section of the strand. This ultimately leads to less customization optionsâthere are no default options for animated reindeer or flickering menorahs, for example (although you can still sync them up to music). But if you just want some great holiday lighting with big, bold colors and a few fun patterns, these Govee lights are a great option. Theyâre also more weather resistant than the Twinklys, with IP rating of 67, which means they should be able to endure through some extreme storms that would fry lesser lights (including the Twinklys). The Govees also come with a variety of mounting options, including 3M adhesive pads as well as screw-in wire braces, which makes them suitable for all different kinds of homes. You can even mount them on pavement or cement.
Speaking of Twinklys, the company recently released a new set of C9-sized bulbs this year that we also plan on testing. Barring any surprises, we expect to add these as a new pick as well.
The competition
The Brightown C9 bulbs both looked and felt like cheap LEDs that we bought off Amazon, which is precisely what they were. That company sells incandescent C9 bulbs too, but we wouldnât recommend them unless you enjoy the occasional pop! of a glass bulb randomly exploding.
We also tested the GE Energy Smart C9 String Lights, which were perfectly fine, but thatâs about it. Though the bulbs were technically the same size as other C9s we tested, these lights were more akin to the GE miniature light strand we recommend as our top pick. Instead of screw-in bases with an empty socket string, the bulbs come pre-attached to a wire on a spool. You can still technically replace the lights, but only with the included GE-brand replacement bulbs that come in the kit. This also means that you canât cut the wire to a custom length to fit our home either; in fact, we found the wire wrapping to be surprisingly sloppy, especially compared to other GE lights weâve tested in the past. (In our experience, a shoddy wire tends to be a bad omen.) These lights werenât quite as bright as the other C9s we tested, either, although the color quality was still up to the standards weâve come to expect from GE. Finally, the warm white GE lights failed after one night of use. We couldnât tell if this was due to weather, or an electrical problem, or just a random fluke. But either way, it wasnât a positive experience.
Although weâre typically skeptical of those smaller in-house brands, we decided to try the Target-exclusive Wondershop Warm White and Multicolor LED lights because theyâre made by Philips, a company thatâs earned its reputation. Unfortunately, these lights donât live up to that reputation. These glaring LEDs vibrated, stuttered, and buzzed so much in our tests that just a few minutes with them left us feeling dizzy and nauseous. Even if all other Christmas lights were sold out or backordered, we still wouldnât recommend these.
We also used to recommend the Christmas Designers Incandescent Christmas Lights. However, the company no longer carries a warm white incandescent option. If youâre looking for multicolor or solid-single-color incandescents, theyâre still a great choice.
Christmas Lights Etc also makes a slightly larger version of its outdoor 5 mm wide-angle lights. In our tests, these were somewhat dimmerâthe yellow and orange lights were a bit dull, and Bridget Collins, the lighting supervisor at the Huntington Theatre Company, described the white lights as âwimpyââbut they were otherwise comparable.
We tested several white and multicolor sets from Home Accents Holiday, which Home Depot carries exclusively. The incandescent lights were fine but ultimately failed our durability test, leaving a large chunk of the string unlit after we submerged them in water overnight. The standard Home Accents LED Lights produced a nauseating flicker, especially when they moved. The Home Accents Holiday Smooth Mini Super Bright Constant On lights, discontinued as of 2020, glared painfully. Overall, the construction and wiring on all of these lights was sloppy and shoddy, and they just looked bad.
We previously tested and dismissed GKI/Bethlehemâs LEDs, the multicolor LED mini lights and 5 mm wide-angle multicolor LEDs from Noma, the wide-angle LEDs from Christmas Light Source, and Brite Star clear incandescents. Weâve also looked into the larger C7 and C9 bulbs, but we ultimately decided not to review them in detail for this guide. If youâre interested in larger bulbs, we recommend looking at the empty-socket lines from Christmas Designers and Christmas Lights Etc, which are typically sold by the foot. If you just need to know what typical bulb sizes look like and what theyâre called, this comparative image from PartyLights.comâs Bright Ideas blog will give you a sense of the common sizes.
How to light a tree
You can find varying opinions on how many lights to use for your tree. In our interview, GEâs John Strainic suggested 100 lights per vertical foot. But 100 lights per foot strikes us as a lot, and we imagine that the result would be a particularly festive tree.
The box that the tested Brite Star lights came in goes a little lower, giving a number of 600 lights for an 8-foot tree (or 75 per foot). And this lighting calculator from Christmas Light Source indicates that 250 to 400 mini lights will light an 8-foot tree.
You have a couple of different ways to apply lights, but one method in particular gets a lot of praise. It involves putting the lights on from bottom to top, doing so vertically, going in and out as you move up. This technique puts the lights deep in the tree and creates depth and a warm interior. You can find more information from Real Simple. (If that approach sounds too radical, you can just do it the traditional way by circling the tree, working from bottom to top.)
How to Decorate Your Christmas Tree Like a Pro
UPDATED NOVEMBER 24, 2023
Elissa Sanci
Elissa Sanci
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Hallmark movies lie to you: Holiday magic doesnât simply appear out of nowhere. You have to create it yourself.
And of course, creating magical moments with twinkling lights, a fresh (or fake) pine, and the sweet scent of freshly baked cookies sometimes takes real, messy effort. Think wrestling with tree stands, untangling cords, and arguing with your partner or roommate over how to hang the ornaments. But decorating doesnât need to be difficult. Weâve pulled together some suggestions to make setting up for the holidays (and pulling it all down a few weeks later) an easier, more festive experience for everyone involved.
Setting up
Splurge for a good tree stand
Krinner Tree Genie XXL
The best Christmas tree stand
With a unique design that makes it easier than any other tree stand to set upâeven if youâre working soloâthe Krinner has been our pick since 2012. Itâs also the most attractive stand weâve seen.
$110 $60 from Amazon
You save $50 (45%)
Buy from Wayfair
Getting your tree perfectly straight in a run-of-the-mill tree stand can be a hassleâespecially since the task is not something a person can usually do without help. After testing dozens of tree stands over the past decade, weâve kept coming back to the Krinner Tree Genie XXL. Not only is the Krinner the most secure tree stand weâve tested, but itâs also the only stand we found that one person can set up. Unlike traditional stands, the Krinner employs a foot pedal to lock the tree inâyou simply set the tree in the stand and press several times on the pedal to tighten the tree trunk into place.
The Krinner stand also takes the work out of maintaining a live Christmas tree: Its water reservoir holds 2.5 gallons, enough that you donât have to water every day. A tree of roughly 6 to 8 feet in height usually takes in 1.5 gallons or less per day, but for peace of mind a gauge on the tank keeps you updated on the water level in between fillings. To make the actual process of watering easier, senior staff writer Jackie Reeve suggests using a tree waterer (something like this one, but we haven't tested it). The tool saves you from crawling under a bushy tree to water it and can help to prevent water from spilling everywhere.
Fluff your fake tree
No artificial tree looks good right out of the boxâeven if you buy the most realistic-looking faux fir, you still have to fluff it to make it look presentable. Fluffing can be a tedious affair that you have to do each year, no matter how you store your tree, because you have to manually separate and arrange the branches to give the tree volume and a realistic shape. Depending on the texture of the branches, you may even consider wearing gardening gloves. This process can take up to 45 minutes depending on the size of your Christmas tree, but itâs necessary if you want your tree to be awe-inspiringâso slip in a pair of earbuds and listen to some holiday music as you fluff.
Lighting and decorating
Donât underestimate how many lights you need
GE Energy Smart Colorite 150-Light LED Warm White Miniature Lights
The best holiday string lights
These white lights, available on a strand of 150, nearly match the look of traditional incandescents, but theyâre safer and more durable, and they should last at least 10 years.
$31 from Lowe's
To make a tree look well-lit (but not over the top), you need about 100 lights per foot: A 6-foot tree requires 600 lights, a 7-foot tree should have 700, and so on. That may sound excessive, but after test-trimming trees using varying amounts of lighting, we found that fewer lights seemed more Scrooge-y than sparkly.
The GE Energy Smart Colorite LED Warm White Miniature Lights set, our top pick, has 150 lights per strand, so you need at least four spools to fully light a 6-foot tree. During our testing, when we were standing in front of the tree with hundreds of tiny bulbs coiled around our feet, it seemed like way too many lightsâbut once weâd strung them up, we were surprised at how beautifully festive the tree looked as it sparkled at us.
Though lighting can get expensive (it costs around $160 to light a 6-foot tree if you stock up on several strands of our pick), the GE Energy Smart Colorite lights are durable enough to last a decade, so we believe theyâre worth it. To keep them in the best shape possible, we have light storage recommendations below.
The best light-stringing method (and some easier approaches, too)
Stringing lights around the Christmas tree is a frustrating taskâbut thereâs an easier, better way to light your tree. Most lighting experts, including Wirecutter senior staff writer Doug Mahoney, say the best way to hang lights on a tree is vertically. âYou're supposed to string from the bottom of the tree to the top and go in and out as you go up,â Doug says, âand then bring the strand of lights down again, going in and out of the treeâand up again.â In our experience, this method results in more even lighting and more depth of twinkle than if you were to wind the string of bulbs around the tree.
If you find the process of stringing lights stressful and tedious, Wirecutter senior staff writer Rose Maura Lorre suggests swapping the string lights for net lights typically reserved for outdoor bushes, though theyâre not among our official picks. The tree might not look as full and even as it would if you had strung lights vertically, but this method can cut down on the headache if you value your time a bit more than the look of your tree.
And if you really hate working with lights, forgo a real Douglas fir entirely and splurge on a pre-lit artificial tree. Our favorite faux tree from the National Tree Company has built-in LED lights that require no stringing (indeed, the whole lit tree is designed to be set up in under 10 minutes) and can easily switch from all-white to multicolor depending on your mood. Thatâs one way to ensure youâll never have to wrestle with string lights again.
National Tree Company 7.5-foot Feel Real Downswept Douglas Fir (PEDD1-D12-75)
The best artificial Christmas tree
Realistic, full, generously sized, and versatile, this LED-lit tree can switch between all-white and multicolor modes, and the lights connect as you put the sections together.
$605 from Amazon
Donât decorate the whole tree
Our pick for best artificial Christmas tree, the National Tree Company 7.5-foot Feel Real Downswept Douglas Fir.
Was the back of this tree decorated? The world may never know. Photo: Michael Murtaugh
If your tree stands next to a wall, you donât have to put lights or ornaments on the back. No one will see the naked part of your treeâand this fact allows you to double the amount of lights and baubles on the room-facing side of the tree, giving the tree a fuller and brighter look. This is probably one of the few times you can get away with half-assing something so pivotal to your holiday decorâso soak it up.
The bigger the tree skirt, the better
A tree skirt with a wide diameter protects floors, catches any loose needles as they fall, and provides space for presents. If youâre struggling to find a big-enough tree skirtâor would rather stick to a more budget-friendly optionâwrap a festive blanket or tablecloth around the base of your tree instead. Weâre currently testing tree skirts, and we hope to have a pick by next Christmas.
Automate your lighting
TP-Link Kasa Smart Wi-Fi Plug Slim (EP25)
The best smart plug
This smart plug worked reliably in tests, includes real-time energy monitoring and an Away Mode, and is widely compatible.
$35 from Amazon
(pack of four)
If youâve ever snuggled into bed during December only to realize that you never switched off the Christmas tree, a simple, inexpensive smart-home device can help you through this annoying quirk of the holiday season. Smart-home senior staff writer Rachel Cericola uses a smart plug, the TP-Link Kasa Smart Wi-Fi Plug Slim, to keep her tree lights on a schedule. In her home, this device saves her from struggling to reach the switch hidden behind tree branches twice each nightâinstead, her tree switches on and off automatically at a predetermined time each evening. Setting a schedule with our favorite smart plug is easy: After downloading the associated app (which is available for iOS, Android, and Apple Home) and registering your device, head to the Schedules tab to set your smart plug on a specific timeline. Automating your holiday decor is especially gratifying for Rachel on the nights she gets home after dark. âItâs really nice to come home to the lights greeting me,â she says.
Taking your tree down
Store ornaments with the hooks on them
A Christmas tree covered in ornaments.
Photo: Michael Murtaugh
As you pack up the Christmas decor, donât remove the hooks from your ornaments. Leaving them on is helpful for both Present You and Future Youânot only does it save time as you break down your holiday display, but it also saves you from the tedious process of re-hooking each ornament next year. Youâll never stop thanking yourself for thinking ahead.
Photo: Michael Murtagh
Christmas Decorating Supplies to Deck the Halls, Walls, Porch, and More
Harry Sawyers
Harry Sawyers
Harry Sawyers has written and edited articles on tools and home improvement since 2005.
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UPDATED NOVEMBER 11, 2020
We've added the Twinkly Generation II Smart RGB-W LED String Lights to our section on Christmas lights.
Hereâs the Christmas decorating gear we recommend, from the tree to the lights and all things in between.
Essentials
Get your home looking festive with the basics.
Christmas lights
5 picks, $16â$164
We prefer long-lasting, good-looking lights that feel like traditional bulbs but offer the durability and efficiency that only LEDs can provide.
These multicolor lights have a color quality that nearly matches that of traditional incandescents, but theyâre safer and more durable, and they should last at least 10 years.
The best indoor multicolor lights
GE Energy Smart Colorite 150-Light LED Multicolor Miniature Lights
Read the review
The Best Christmas Lights
$30 from Lowe's
This strand of 100 white lights has a color quality that nearly matches what you can get from traditional incandescents, but itâs safer and more durable, and it should last at least 10 years.
The best indoor white lights
GE Energy Smart Colorite 150-Light LED Warm White Miniature Lights
Read the review
The Best Christmas Lights
$31 from Lowe's
Weather-sealed and durable, these mini lights come spaced 6 inches apart on each 50-foot wire, and a dark green cord helps the 100-bulb strand easily blend with most backgrounds.
The best outdoor lights
Christmas Lights Etc Kringle Traditions Wide-Angle 5mm Multicolor Outdoor LED Christmas Tree Lights
Read the review
The Best Christmas Lights
$20 from Amazon
$25 from Home Depot
These warm incandescents look classic but are less durable and less efficient than our pick, and they wonât last as long.
The best incandescent lights
Christmas Lights Etc 100 Clear Christmas Tree Mini Lights
Read the review
The Best Christmas Lights
$16 from Christmas Lights Etc
$25 from Amazon
With 16 million color choices and a library of customizable animations and effects, the Twinklys are incredibly versatile. But they are expensive, and the app could use some work.
The best smart Christmas lights for all occasions
Twinkly Generation II Smart RGB-W LED String Lights
Read the review
The Best Christmas Lights
$115 from Amazon
$164 from Christmas Designers
Artificial Christmas tree
5 picks, $70â$1699
Artificial trees are expensive, but they can be a great no-hassle value if you can use one for yearsâand if you have the room to store it in the off-season.
Realistic, full, generously sized, and versatile, this LED-lit tree can switch between all-white and multicolor modes, and its power connects as you put the sections together.
The best artificial Christmas tree
National Tree Company 7.5-foot Feel Real Downswept Douglas Fir (PEDD1-D12-75)
Read the review
The Best Artificial Christmas Tree
$605 from Amazon
More lights, more realistic branch tips, more money. For a long-term investment in a truly excellent artificial tree, Balsam Hillâs most popular âspeciesâ is hard to beat.
The Cadillac of Christmas trees
Balsam Hill 7.5-foot Vermont White Spruce Flip Tree Color + Clear LED
Read the review
The Best Artificial Christmas Tree
$1699 from Balsam Hill
The least expensive, least realistic tree we tested proved that it could look as nice as the pricier options once we packed it full of lights and ornaments.
No lights but lots of potential
Home Accents Holiday 7.5-foot Unlit Dunhill Fir
Read the review
The Best Artificial Christmas Tree
$216 from Lowe's
$179 from Home Depot
Fun, kitschy, and proudly artificial, this all-white option proved surprisingly beautiful, and it makes a fine alternative to the traditional holiday aesthetic.
If youâre dreaming of a white Christmas
National Tree Company 7.5-foot Winchester White Pine (WCHW7-300-75)
Read the review
The Best Artificial Christmas Tree
$352 from Home Depot
$70 from Lowe's
$364 from Walmart
Artificial trees offer a lot of versatility, as this space-saving version of our pick provesâif you donât want a tiny tree in a small room, consider a slim model with a minimal footprint.
A slimmer version of our pick
National Tree Company 7.5-foot Feel Real Downswept Douglas Fir Pencil Slim (PEDD4-392D-75)
Read the review
The Best Artificial Christmas Tree
$279 from Home Depot
$215 from Lowe's
Christmas tree stand
2 picks, $50â$116
The best stands keep your tree stable and make setup as hassle-free as possible. This item is for real treesâartificial ones include a stand.
With a unique design thatâs easier than any other tree stand to set upâeven working soloâthe Krinner has been our pick since 2012.
The best Christmas tree stand
Krinner Tree Genie XXL
Read the review
The Best Christmas Tree Stand
$116 from Amazon
Buy from Wayfair
The Cinco Express is a better (and bigger) version of the typical stand, with a stable design, a large reservoir, and a quick-release screw that makes adjustments easy.
A basic stand, well done
Cinco C-144E Express
Read the review
The Best Christmas Tree Stand
$50 from Amazon
$55 from Ace Hardware
Nice-to-haves
Take your Christmas decorating to the next level.
Smart switch
3 picks, $27â$60
The best way to smart-ify your lights or tree is by using a basic smart plugâthe same kind we recommend for adding that kind of control to other small home appliances.
Reliable, compact, and easy to use, the Wemo Mini works with both Android and iOS devices and supports Alexa, HomeKit/Siri, Google Assistant, Nest, and IFTTT for control and automation.
The best smart outlet
Wemo Mini
Read the review
The Best Smart Plugs
$60 from Amazon
This weatherproof smart plug has two outlets that you can control independently.
The best outdoor smart outlet
iClever IC-BS06
Read the review
The Best Smart Plugs
$27 from Amazon
It turns one outlet into six independently controlled smart outlets, with energy monitoring and smart-home support (but not for HomeKit users). It also has three USB ports for quick device charging.
Our multiplug pick
TP-Link Kasa Smart Wi-Fi Power Strip (HS300)
Read the review
The Best Smart Plugs
$40 from Amazon
Extension cord
2 picks, $13â$75
For powering outdoor displays or for setting up indoor outlets to share power with lights and a tree, extension cords add versatility and range to your decorating plans.
With a solid power rating and durable construction, this cord can safely handle any job around a home or garage. Plus, itâs the most flexible cord weâve tested, even in freezing temps.
The best outdoor extension cord
U.S. Wire & Cable 50 FT. Extreme All-Weather Extension Cord
Read the review
The Best Extension Cords for Your Home and Garage
$75 from Amazon
Made for use with low-power devices like lamps, the grounded Cordinate cord has a flat plug that wonât get bent or pulled from an outlet, and it looks a little nicer than most inexpensive cords.
A cord for low-power, indoor use
Cordinate DĂ©cor Extension Cord with 3 Grounded Outlets
Read the review
The Best Extension Cords for Your Home and Garage
$13 from Amazon
$13 from Home Depot
Tree storage bag
1 pick, $14
A good bag preserves your treeâs color and integrity during the long months of storage in extreme conditions in a basement, garage, or attic.
Once itâs set up, a fake tree wonât fit easily back into the box it came inâthis sealed bag is better for preserving its integrity than old cardboard, anyway.
A great tree bag
Elf Stor Premium Christmas Bag
$14 from Amazon
Picture hangers
1 pick, $11
Whether youâre hanging a wreath, putting up a kidâs craft project, or mounting a new perch for your Elf on a Shelf, a pack of picture hangers sees a lot of action around the holidays.
The Floreatsâ hanging strength is as good as advertised when nailed to a stud or even simply in drywall, and their slim, strong nails are easy to drive and leave a very small hole.
The best picture hanger
Floreat 30 lb. Hanger
Read the review
The Best Picture Hangers
$11 from Amazon
Hammer
1 pick, $31
A small, light-duty hammer is ideal for tacking in brads and other small hardware for lights and wreaths.
A 12-ounce version of Estwingâs classic design, the E3-12C is a durable, well-balanced tool perfect for hanging hooks, nails, or tacks for decorations.
A great small hammer
Estwing E3-12C
Read the review
The Best Hammer
$31 from Amazon
Multi-tool
1 pick, $90
When youâre securing lightsâ wires, bending a wreathâs frame, or just opening packaging, a pocketable multi-tool is handyâespecially if youâre already up a ladder when you need it.
This light and slim multi-tool focuses on well-executed essentialsâsuch as precise, comfortable pliersâand has no filler. Itâs easy to carry daily and built to last.
The best multi-tool
Leatherman Skeletool CX
Read the review
The Best Multi-Tool
$90 from Amazon
$90 from REI
Comments
Further reading
A decorated Christmas tree with presents.
How to Decorate Your Christmas Tree Like a Pro
A string of Christmas lights against a pink background, with three glittery ornaments nearby.
The Best Christmas Lights
Four artificial Christmas trees, in different sizes and colors, fully decorated and lit shown side by side.
The Best Artificial Christmas Tree
JOLLY Repair Toolkit
On the left, the National Tree Companyâs 7.5-foot Feel Real Downswept Douglas Fir. On the right, a close-up of the tree and the tree's decorations.
This Fake Christmas Tree Is Beautiful, Simple, and a Great Value. Itâs Been Our Pick Since 2016.
christmas tree stands krinner tree genie xxl
The Best Christmas Tree Stand
15 Best Artificial Christmas Trees of 2023, Tested and Reviewed
From super realistic to razzle-dazzle tinsel
By Kristi Kellogg
Illustration by Lizzie Soufleris
November 18, 2023
artificial christmas trees on yellow background
Courtesy of the vendors
If youâre used to the tradition of a live tree, embracing an artificial one can be a big step, but we think youâll be impressed with best artificial Christmas trees on the market. Once you go faux, you may never go back. Think about: no pine needles littering the ground, no sap clinging to your hands, no battle to get the tree into the stand, and no water sloshing about once you finally get the whole thing set up (that is, if you even remember to water it).
Ahead, discover full, lush Christmas trees that will trick even the most discerning eye. Even better, many of them are already on sale for Black Friday.
Our Top Picks
Best Overall Tree: Balsam Hill Fraser Fir Tree (BUY NOW: was $1,119, now $849)
Best Budget Tree: National Tree Co. Downswept Douglas Fir Tree, Amazon (BUY NOW: was $470, now $197)
Best Smart Tree: Twinkly App-Controlled Christmas Tree (BUY NOW: $495)
Best Dunhill Fir: National Tree Company Pre-Lit Dunhill Fir, AllModern (BUY NOW: was $460, now $579)
Best Budget Pencil Tree: Best Choice Products Pencil Tree, Amazon (BUY NOW: was $160, now $120)
Fullest Tree: Grandin Road Woodside Christmas Tree (BUY NOW: was $899, now $674)
More of Our Favorite Artificial Christmas Trees
Best Blue Spruce Tree: Balsam Hill Classic Blue Spruce (BUY NOW: was $899, now $499)
Best Flocked Tree: Balsam Hill Frosted Yukon Spruce (BUY NOW: was $1,199, now $899)
Best Pencil Tree: Balsam Hill Cathedral Fir Artificial Slim Tree (BUY NOW: was $649, now $449)
Best Fiberoptic Tree: Hammacher Schlemmer The Northern Lights Tree (was $550, now $412)
Best Sparse Tree: Balsam Hill Alpine Balsam Fir Tree (was $699, now $549)
Best Tinsel Tree: Grandin Road Long Needle Tinsel Tree (was $799, now $399)
Best Upside-Down Tree: Costway Upside Down Christmas Tree (was $140, now $77)
Best Porch Tree: Grandin Road Pre-lit Porch Pencil Tree (was $429, now $322)
Best Scandinavian Tree: Demelzahill Beaded Heirloom Wood Christmas Tree (was $429)
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Get Digital Access Editor's Note: If you'd like to read more about how we selected and tested the trees, you can jump straight to testing notes at the bottom of this page. Best Overall Tree: Balsam Hill Fraser Fir Tree 15 Best Artificial Christmas Trees of 2023 BUY NOW: $849 AT BALSAM HILL This big, beautiful tree is inspired by the Fraser Fir. Known for its rich, dark green coloring and full silhouette, this tree is native to the Appalachian Mountains and has the distinction of being the type of tree most often used as the official White House Christmas tree. To be honest, we can't tell the difference between Balsam Hill's faux version and the real thing. BH's impressive âtrue needleâ foliage features 40 variations of branch types throughout and the effect is incredibly realistic. WATCH Inside Ashley Tisdale's Self-Designed Family Home ADVERTISEMENT The tree is available just about any height and light variation you could want, all of which feature an easy plug system. Easy plug trees have all the light strands plugged into the center pole, so all you have to do is place the three sections together and plug the tree into an outlet. There's no need to ever unplug or take off any light strands. The style pictured above is âcolor + clear,â which allows you to switch between multicolored lights and white lights via remote. For pre-lit trees with a single lighting style, there is an attached foot pedal to turn the lights on and off. The Twinkly light style features built-in app-controlled smart lights from Twinkly. 7.5' BH Fraser Fir Tree with Color + Clear Lights at a Glance Diameter: 60" Weight: 63 pounds Light type: LED Light count: 1,180 Branch tips: 3,272 Additional heights: 5.5', 6.5', 9', 10', and 12' Warranty: 3 years Additional lighting options: Unlit, clear, Twinkly, multicolor, and candlelight clear Our Contributorâs Review Divya's artificial Christmas tree in her living room. Courtesy of Divya Viswanathan Most Popular 5 Alcove Bedrooms That Make the Most of Small Spaces CLEVER 5 Alcove Bedrooms That Make the Most of Small Spaces By Nicolas Milon 11 Design Trends That Will Break the Algorithm in 2024 CLEVER 11 Design Trends That Will Break the Algorithm in 2024 By Sydney Gore 43 Gifts for Men Under $50 That Theyâll Actually Use CLEVER 43 Gifts for Men Under $50 That Theyâll Actually Use By Erika Owen ADVERTISEMENT Reviewer: Divya Viswanathan, VP, commerce portfolio lead How easy was it to assemble your tree (scale of 1-10, 10 being the easiest)? 9 What was the quality of the tree packaging? Will you be able to store your tree for future years? The tree arrived easily and without issue. Iâve just received it and havenât needed to dismantle and store it yet, but Iâd rate the quality of the packaging as a 7. How long did it take to fluff and prepare your tree? Did you see a lot of needle loss in the process? Very easy. It took less than five minutes from start to finish and I didnât notice any needle loss. As a mom, I appreciate the easy setup â no fuss, no mess. Did your tree come with lights or decor? If so, how easy was it to install? (scale of 1-10, 10 being the easiest) Yes, the tree came with pre-installed lights, which were very easy. I'd give it a 9! Did your tree live up to your expectations and was the size accurate? Yes. I'm totally obsessed with real Fraser Christmas trees, and let me tell you, this one blew me away. And can we talk about how full and perfectly shaped it is? It's like the Christmas tree of my dreams. Plus, no stressing about overwatering or my kids making a mess. It's a game-changer for our holiday setup, especially in our apartment with its unpredictable temperatures. So glad I went for it! How full is the tree (scale of 1-10, 10 being the fullest) 8 How realistic is the tree? (on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the most realistic)? 9 Best Budget Tree: National Tree Company Downswept Douglas Fir Tree Image may contain Plant Tree Ornament Christmas Tree and Pine BUY NOW: $197 AT AMAZON This beauty looks like it was plucked right off the tree farm, but all you have to do is just pull it out of the box. Speaking of, let your tree breathe for a day or two after you take it out of the box. That way, the branches can fluff up on their own before you decorate the tree. The tree features hinged branches, making setup and teardown straightforward (just push each hinge down and pop into a storage bag). If you're looking for a large tree, and a full tree but don't want to spend a fortune, this is a good, solid pick from The National Tree Company. The National Tree Company has been making holiday trees and decorations for more than 60 years, and they have plenty more styles to choose from on Amazon. 7.5' National Tree Company 'Feel Real' Downswept Douglas Fir at a Glance Diameter: 59" Weight: 38 pounds Light type: Unlit Light count: Branch tips: 1,867 Warranty: 5 years Additional heights: not available Our Contributorâs Review DaVonne's National Tree Company tree in his NYC living room. DaVonne's dashing display. Courtesy of DaVonne Bacchus Most Popular 5 Alcove Bedrooms That Make the Most of Small Spaces CLEVER 5 Alcove Bedrooms That Make the Most of Small Spaces By Nicolas Milon 11 Design Trends That Will Break the Algorithm in 2024 CLEVER 11 Design Trends That Will Break the Algorithm in 2024 By Sydney Gore 43 Gifts for Men Under $50 That Theyâll Actually Use CLEVER 43 Gifts for Men Under $50 That Theyâll Actually Use By Erika Owen ADVERTISEMENT Reviewer: DaVonne Bacchus, senior manager, content operations How easy was it to assemble your tree (on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the easiest)? 8 What was the quality of the tree packaging? Will you be able to store your tree for future years? The tree came in a large rectangular shipping box in three unfluffed sections with a metal base, no bag or cover. The box will be of no use for future storage, luckily I own a tree storage bag I purchased years back which will come in handy when itâs time for it to be taken down post holidays. I must add, once delivered to my doorstep, I had to ask for assistance from a neighbor to help bring the heavy box up a flight of stairs. How long did it take to fluff and prepare your tree? Did you see a lot of needle loss in the process? The process of fluffing the tree took roughly an hour with a few breaks in between to rest my armsâa nice arm workout! I started from the bottom, opening up each branch, making my way up the three labeled sections. The top was a bit difficult to reach, as I am 5â 5â and itâs a 7.5â tall tree. My handy step ladder came of great use! Overall, the process was a clean one. I saw no needle loss. Next time Iâd maybe consider having a few friends over to help fluff and decorate. If you have kids, it might be a fun task though it will be repetitive. Did your tree come with lights or decor? If so, how easy was it to install? (on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the easiest)? 8. The tree came with no lights or decor and was easy to install. The bottom section was a bit on the heavier side, Iâd take that into consideration if installing solo. Did your tree live up to your expectations and was the size accurate? Yes, itâs fluffed and tall, I love the finished product. I have high ceilings with a spacious living roomâmaking it the perfect addition for my space. If you are in a smaller space, keep in mind, it will take up a lot of room! How full is the tree (scale of 1-10, with 10 being the fullest)? On a fluff scale, I'd rate the tree an 8! There are some gaps that I will fill in with ornaments and lights. How realistic is the tree? (on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the most realistic)? Iâm going to rate the tree an 8 on a scale of realistic appearance. This is predominantly due to the metal base. I will spruce it up with a round tree skirt and of course many presents! Best Dunhill Fir: National Tree Company Pre-Lit Dunhill Fir 15 Best Artificial Christmas Trees of 2023 BUY NOW: $579 AT ALLMODERN Like a real-life Douglas Fir, this faux tree is designed to have a darker hue than other evergreens. Its needles are also longer and flatter than other evergreen varieties, growing out on either side of each branch rather than all the way around it. 6.5' Pre-lit Dunhill Fir with Multicolor Lights at a Glance Diameter: 53" Weight: 32 pounds Light type: LED Light count: 500 Branch tips: 1,838 Warranty: 2 years for the lights; 5 years for the tree Our Contributorâs Review Stewart's tree in her living room with lights and ornamental star. Stewart's stunning setup. Courtesy of Stewart Fussell Most Popular 5 Alcove Bedrooms That Make the Most of Small Spaces CLEVER 5 Alcove Bedrooms That Make the Most of Small Spaces By Nicolas Milon 11 Design Trends That Will Break the Algorithm in 2024 CLEVER 11 Design Trends That Will Break the Algorithm in 2024 By Sydney Gore 43 Gifts for Men Under $50 That Theyâll Actually Use CLEVER 43 Gifts for Men Under $50 That Theyâll Actually Use By Erika Owen ADVERTISEMENT Reviewer: Stewart Fussell, SEO analyst How easy was it to assemble your tree (scale of 1-10, 10 being the easiest)? I would give my tree an 8. You just stack the three pieces on top of each other using the center pole, let the branches fall into place (theyâre on hinges), and plug the lights into each other. The most difficult part was tracking down the beginning and end of each cord and wrangling the three giant pieces. What was the quality of the tree packaging? Will you be able to store your tree for future years? My tree came in a large cardboard box and had no damage upon arrival. That said, thereâs no chance I could have compressed the tree back into that box so I purchased a handy tree storage bag on Amazon for under $15. How long did it take to fluff and prepare your tree? Did you see a lot of needle loss in the process? Fluffing this tree was a process because of how compressed it was in transit. Each hinged branch has three smaller branches built with wire so you can bend them away from one another. Then each of those has all of the individual pine needle branches that can also be bent in any direction. I started from the bottom and worked up going inside to outside, basically just sticking the pine branches adjacent to the larger wire branch. I did each of these one by one but it wasnât hard to fill out the tree since there were so many! Throughout the whole process I probably only lost two or three needles which was a pleasant surprise. Iâd say it took me five hours over the course of a few days but Iâm hopeful next year will be easier since I wonât fully compress the tree when I put it away for the season. A pro tip is to wear long sleeves and gloves while doing this as my skin did become irritated and I had a few scratches by the end! Did your tree come with lights or decor? If so, how easy was it to install? (On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the easiest)? Iâm going with a 9. My tree was fully lit, none of the lights were out or broken, and connecting them wasnât all that difficult. Did your tree live up to your expectations and was the size accurate? Yes! It was wider than I expected because I was paying more attention to the height when I purchased it. It looks so grand and thankfully, fits in my space just right. How full is the tree (on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the fullest)? Iâm going with a 7 because I grew up with real trees at my parentâs so I can tell a difference with this one. That said, I just filled in the gaps with plenty of ornaments. How realistic is the tree? (on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the most realistic)? I'd give it a 10, except for the base. The tips of the branches have more realistic needles and they become straighter the closer they are to the center pole. The only thing that makes it look unrealistic is the base, which can be covered with a tree skirt or a base cover that mimics real wood. Best Smart Tree: Twinkly Pre-lit, App-Controlled Christmas Tree Image may contain Plant Ornament Tree Christmas Tree Indoors Hearth and Fireplace BUY NOW: $493 AT AMAZON Twinkly is a clear leader in smart lighting, so much so that other tree brands (like Balsam Hill, as mentioned above) use Twinkly lights for their own smart trees. Twinkly, of course, has its own bespoke smart trees (not to mention smart garlands and wreaths). Most Popular 5 Alcove Bedrooms That Make the Most of Small Spaces CLEVER 5 Alcove Bedrooms That Make the Most of Small Spaces By Nicolas Milon 11 Design Trends That Will Break the Algorithm in 2024 CLEVER 11 Design Trends That Will Break the Algorithm in 2024 By Sydney Gore 43 Gifts for Men Under $50 That Theyâll Actually Use CLEVER 43 Gifts for Men Under $50 That Theyâll Actually Use By Erika Owen ADVERTISEMENT If you want to get creative with your decor, the lights can be programmed in any color combo or pattern (like the cool rainbow hues seen above). Once you download the Twinkly app to your phone, you can use it like a remote control to change up the lighting whenever you like. Indecisive decorators will love this option. This tree comes in three pieces that simply stack together. The lights are already built in, so you'll have it up and ready to go in minutes. 7' Twinkly Pre-Lit LED Douglas Fir at a Glance Diameter: 44" Weight: 24.2 pounds Light type: LED Light count: 270 Branch tips: 1,021 Warranty: 1 year Our Contributorâs Review Katie's fake christmas tree in her California living room. The Twinkly tree set up in Katie's living room. Courtesy of Katie Leirey Reviewer: Katie Leirey, global SEO manager How easy was it to assemble your tree (scale of 1-10, 10 being the easiest)? 8. The tree was really easy to assemble in that you don't have to mess around with any light strands, but I gave it an 8 as the bottom sections are quite large and heavy to maneuver for one person What was the quality of the tree packaging? Will you be able to store your tree for future years? The tree came in a classic brown packing box and did not include a bag or anything to store it in for the future. The packing box is sturdy enough that I can re-use it as the tree is only four pieces including the base, but it is quite heavy and doesn't come with handles to assist in moving it. How long did it take to fluff and prepare your tree? Did you see a lot of needle loss in the process? All in all, it took me about 15 minutes to put together and fluff my tree! It was really straightforward to assemble, and the tree itself has a variety of textures in the branches which helped to minimize fluffing and maximize shape. there were minimal to no needles lost in the process! Did your tree come with lights or decor? If so, how easy was it to install? (On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the easiest)? My tree came with lights and there was no installation required as the tree was pre-lit, so I would score this part a 10, super easy. Did your tree live up to your expectations and was the size accurate? The Christmas tree exceeded expectations in how quick it was to physically set it up, but missed expectations when it came to the lights and their functionality. The sizing of the tree is accurate, I'd even say it's a bit fuller than how it appears in the stock photos on Amazon. How full is the tree (on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the fullest)? 7 How realistic is the tree? (on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the most realistic)? 5 Best Budget Pencil Tree: Best Choice Products Pencil Christmas Tree 15 Best Artificial Christmas Trees of 2023 Most Popular 5 Alcove Bedrooms That Make the Most of Small Spaces CLEVER 5 Alcove Bedrooms That Make the Most of Small Spaces By Nicolas Milon 11 Design Trends That Will Break the Algorithm in 2024 CLEVER 11 Design Trends That Will Break the Algorithm in 2024 By Sydney Gore 43 Gifts for Men Under $50 That Theyâll Actually Use CLEVER 43 Gifts for Men Under $50 That Theyâll Actually Use By Erika Owen ADVERTISEMENT This skinny tree is perfect for a small space. It can tuck into a corner without overpowering the room. With flocking, an abundance of branches, and nine light patterns, it's not surprising that realistic tree has earned more than 2,800 5-star reviews on Amazon. BUY NOW: $120 AT AMAZON 7.5' Pencil Tree with Multicolor Lights Diameter: 30" Weight: 15.6 pounds Light type: LED Light count: 350 Branch tips: 641 Warranty: 3 years Additional heights: 6', 9', and 12' Additional lighting options: Clear Our Contributorâs Review Kristi's pencil tree fits snugly into a narrow staircase lit up The perfect fit in Kristi's narrow stairwell. Courtesy of Kristi Kellogg Reviewer: Kristi Kellogg, contributor How easy was it to assemble your tree (scale of 1-10, 10 being the easiest)? 10. It was a straightforward affair that came in four sections that stacked together. What was the quality of the tree packaging? Will you be able to store your tree for future years? It came double-boxed. I will keep the interior box for storage. It's just a brown cardboard box (nothing special), but should definitely work to safely stow a tree. How long did it take to fluff and prepare your tree? Did you see a lot of needle loss in the process? This took about twenty minutes. The tree came with helpful instructions that guided you to fluff from the interior branches out the outermost branches. That, of course, makes sense, and that's what we did. Almost every branch needed to be fluffed up, which was a lot on the 9' tree (which is what I ordered). There was no needle loss, but there was a lot of flocking that flaked off during the set upâbut nothing my robo-vac couldn't handle! Did your tree come with lights or decor? If so, how easy was it to install? (On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the easiest)? Yes! It came with pre-strung lights, but you had to string each of the four sections together. It was not complicated, though, and each connector had a tag attached to it so they were all easy to spot. I'd give it a 10 for ease. Did your tree live up to your expectations and was the size accurate? I chose this tree because it was the perfect size to fit in our stairwell, and it lived up to the expectations. The 9' version is a relatively slim 33 inches around, so it's perfect for an area that's small in diameter but has room for something with a lot of height (like an alcove next to a staircase). I'm very pleased with how it looks. The colored lights are cheerful and fun and can also be switched to white if you want to keep it classy. How full is the tree (on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the fullest)? 9. It's very dense and packed with branches. How realistic is the tree? (on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the most realistic)? I wouldn't say the tree is meant to look particularly realistic, but I'm giving it an 8 because it's very pretty and very generously flocked. Fullest Tree: Grandin Road Woodside Christmas Tree 15 Best Artificial Christmas Trees of 2023 BUY NOW: $540 AT GRANDIN ROAD If you're of the go-big-or-go-home mindset, this is the tree for you. Hundreds of down-swept, abundant branches create a beautiful, broad profile and a realistic look. The tree is one of Grandin Road's best sellers. This pick boasts the most branch tips and heftiest diameter of any tree on this list, making it the absolute fullest affair. 7.5' Woodside Christmas Tree at a Glance Diameter: 65" Weight: 57 pounds Light type: Miniature lights Light count: 2,400 Branch tips: 4,868 Warranty: 1 year Additional heights: 9' Our Contributorâs Review Kristi's Grandin Road tree in a white room with reflection in window Our fullest tree pick on proud display in Kristiâs home. Most Popular 5 Alcove Bedrooms That Make the Most of Small Spaces CLEVER 5 Alcove Bedrooms That Make the Most of Small Spaces By Nicolas Milon 11 Design Trends That Will Break the Algorithm in 2024 CLEVER 11 Design Trends That Will Break the Algorithm in 2024 By Sydney Gore 43 Gifts for Men Under $50 That Theyâll Actually Use CLEVER 43 Gifts for Men Under $50 That Theyâll Actually Use By Erika Owen ADVERTISEMENT Reviewer: Kristi Kellogg, contributor How easy was it to assemble your tree (scale of 1-10, 10 being the easiest)? This was the easiest assembly ever. 10. It has an easy-plug system, so it simply stacks together. There are three portions of the tree, clearly marked as A, B, and C. After placing the base on the floor, you secure it with three bolts that can be screwed in by hand. After screwing in the bolts, the first section slots into the base, and the next two sections slot into each other. The lights are already pre-strung, and you do not have to plug each section's cords together. Just plug it in once and the whole tree lights up immediately. The most time-consuming part of assembling this tree is the fluffing, but it wasn't a pain at all. The branches were easy to maneuver. You can bend them up and down and side to side to make sure every gap is filled. What was the quality of the tree packaging? Will you be able to store your tree for future years? It came in a cardboard box without anything special. If you open the box carefully, you should be able to store it inside, though. How long did it take to fluff and prepare your tree? Did you see a lot of needle loss in the process? It took about two minutes to stack the tree together and another ten to fluff it up. There was literally no needle loss during the process! Did your tree come with lights or decor? if so, how easy was it to install? (scale of 1-10, 10 being the easiest)? As mentioned above, it comes with lightsâbut since they're already attached and there's no need to plug together strands, there's nothing to do. So it's a 10/10 for easy light installation! Did your tree live up to your expectations and was the size accurate? The tree exceeded my expectations. It's huge. It's the largest tree fake tree I've ever seen, outside of the crazy large ones on display at places like Disneyland. How full is the tree (on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the fullest)? 10 How realistic is the tree? (on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the most realistic)? 10 Best Blue Spruce Tree: Balsam Hill Classic Blue Spruce Artificial Christmas Tree 15 Best Artificial Christmas Trees of 2023 BUY NOW: $549 AT BALSAM HILL Another one of the prettiest pre-lit Christmas trees is this Blue Spruce. The full foliage on this fake tree includes realistic needles in blue-green and silvery hues paired with light brown stems, just like an authentic Blue Spruce. Like all Balsam Hill trees, it comes with an off-season storage bag, protective gloves to use while shaping the tree branches, and extra bulbs. 7.5' Classic Blue Spruce with Candlelight Clear LED Lights at a Glance Diameter: 60" Weight: 53 pounds Light type: LED Light count: 1,000 Branch tips: 2,960 Warranty: 3 years Additional heights: 4.5', 5.5', 6.5', 9', 10', 12', and 15' Additional lighting options: Unlit, clear, color + clear, and Twinkly Best Flocked Tree: Balsam Hill Frosted Yukon Spruce 15 Best Artificial Christmas Trees of 2023 BUY NOW: $699 AT BALSAM HILL This tree has it all: flocking, lights, and towering height. As the name suggests, this particular tree style is inspired by the evergreens found in the Yukon Territory in Canada. The asymmetry of the soft green branches gives it an organic, natural look. If you're looking to turn your home into a winter wonderland, look no further than this frosted beauty. 7.5' Frosted Yukon Spruce with Clear Micro LED Lights at a Glance Diameter: 56" Weight: 31 pounds Light type: LED Light count: 700 Branch tips: 4,097 Warranty: 3 years Additional heights: 6', 9', 12', and 15' Best Pencil Tree: Balsam Hill Cathedral Fir Artificial Slim Tree Image may contain Plant Ornament Tree Christmas Tree and Pine BUY NOW: $499 AT BALSAM HILL This slim artificial Christmas tree makes a statement without taking up a lot of horizontal room. The design was inspired by the slender fir trees that spring up from snowy Schweitzer Mountain in Idaho. The branches feature long, full needles in both medium and light green. Each branch is accented with silvery white edges to give it a realistic finish. The abundant tips are pronged and outstretched, making it easy to layer them with your favorite ornaments. Most Popular 5 Alcove Bedrooms That Make the Most of Small Spaces CLEVER 5 Alcove Bedrooms That Make the Most of Small Spaces By Nicolas Milon 11 Design Trends That Will Break the Algorithm in 2024 CLEVER 11 Design Trends That Will Break the Algorithm in 2024 By Sydney Gore 43 Gifts for Men Under $50 That Theyâll Actually Use CLEVER 43 Gifts for Men Under $50 That Theyâll Actually Use By Erika Owen ADVERTISEMENT The tall, slender tree is available in two sizes and you can choose between two light types: Candlelight clear LED or clear LED fairy (candlelight clear LED casts a warm white glow). Like all Balsam Hill trees, this style come with a three-year warranty. 7.5' Cathedral Fir Tree with Clear LED Lights at a Glance Diameter: 32" Weight: 19 pounds Light type: LED Light count: 900 Branch tips: 1,181 Warranty: 3 years Additional heights: 9' Additional lighting options: Candlelight clear LED Best Sparse Tree: Balsam Hill Alpine Balsam Fir Tree spare evergreen tree where you can see trunk Photo: Courtesy of Balsam Hill BUY NOW: $499 AT BALSAM HILL 7.5 Alpine Balsam Fir Artificial Christmas Tree at a Glance Diameter: 48" Weight: 26 pounds Light type: Clear LED Light count: 450 Branch tips: 1,368 Warranty: 3 years Additional heights: 4.5', 6.5', 9', 10', and 12' A visible trunk and lean profile make this tree a minimalistâs dream. It's sparse by design, allowing your ornaments and decorations to take center stage. Both the trunk and the branches are well-detailed, and look like authentic wood and foliage. Inside, the light green branches are made with sturdy memory wire that keeps them perfectly shaped season after season. The Alpine Balsam Fir has more than 850 5-stars reviews, with ample praise for its attractive, subtle design and easy setup. Best Tinsel Tree: Grandin Road Long Needle Tinsel Tree 15 Best Artificial Christmas Trees of 2023 BUY NOW: $399 AT GRANDIN ROAD Channel a whimsical holiday feel with this shimmering tinsel tree that's just as festive as any Fraser Fir or Carolina Pine. Hundreds of lights set off the champagne coloring on this elegant tree. It adds a touch of glamour and grandeur to any room, and looks stunning with or without ornaments. 7.5 Long Needle Tinsel Tree at a Glance Diameter: 51" Weight: 29 pounds Light type: Clear Light count: 550 Warranty: 1 year Best Fiberoptic Tree: Hammacher Schlemmer The Northern Lights Tree Image may contain Plant Ornament Tree and Christmas Tree BUY NOW: $550 AT HAMMACHER SCHLEMMER There are lifelike, realistic artificial Christmas treesâand then there are fiberoptic disco queens meant to dazzle the eye with vibrantly colored LED lights and more than 1,000 fiberoptic tips. You can control the lighting color and there are 23 pre-programmed animated patterns to choose from. Reviewers praise this tree's dazzling effects and call it âmesmerizingâ and âmystical.â Conveniently, there is a built-in timer that allows you to turn the tree on for eight hours and off for 16. 7.5' Northern Lights Christmas Tree at a Glance Diameter: 52" Weight: 51 pounds Light type: Color LED Light count: 87 Branch tips: 1,038 Warranty: Lifetime Additional heights: 4.5' and 9' Best Porch Tree: Grandin Road Pre-Lit Pencil Porch Tree Another one of our top picks is this slim tree with incandescent lights, designed for outdoor use. Not only are the lights outdoor-safe, but the sturdy branches are rust-resistant. They're also, of course, fluffy and realistic looking, as is the base, which mimics a true tree trunk, complete with notching and grooves. The tree plugs into a standard outlet and features a 60-foot cord. It comes with ten extra bulbs and five fuses, which are always handy to have around when (eventually) a bulb burns out. Most Popular 5 Alcove Bedrooms That Make the Most of Small Spaces CLEVER 5 Alcove Bedrooms That Make the Most of Small Spaces By Nicolas Milon 11 Design Trends That Will Break the Algorithm in 2024 CLEVER 11 Design Trends That Will Break the Algorithm in 2024 By Sydney Gore 43 Gifts for Men Under $50 That Theyâll Actually Use CLEVER 43 Gifts for Men Under $50 That Theyâll Actually Use By Erika Owen ADVERTISEMENT 15 Best Artificial Christmas Trees of 2023 BUY NOW: $322 AT GRANDIN ROAD 6.5' Pre-Lit Porch Pencil Tree Diameter: 27" Weight: 24 pounds Light type: Clear incandescent Light count: 250 Branch tips: 1,025 Warranty: 1 year Best Upside-Down Tree: Costway Upside Down Christmas Tree upside down christmas tree BUY NOW: $75 AT TARGET Shake things up with an upside-down Christmas treeâand yes, this is very much a thing. The tree design is inspired by trend that dates back to the Middle Ages, when households in Central Europe would hang trees from their ceilings. Ariana Grande is also a fan of this quirky trend. While hanging a seven-foot tree upside down in your living room might be a bit of a hassle, you can get the same effect with an upside-down tree like this that rests securely on a on a base. What it lacks in lighting it makes up for in festive novelty. 7' Costway Unlit Upside Down Christmas Tree Diameter: 45.6" Weight: 17.5 pounds Branch tips: 1,000 Warranty: 90 days Best Scandinavian Tree: Demelzahill Beaded Heirloom Wood Christmas Tree 15 Best Artificial Christmas Trees of 2023 BUY NOW: $434 AT ETSY Some of the best artificial Christmas trees are actually more modest specimens that have emerged to suit small spaces and/or folks with contemporary taste. Case in point? This handmade Scandinavian-style pick with dowels for tree branches (no fluffing required!). Each dowel is made of sustainably sourced maple wood, and multiple ornaments can hang along each one. And, while it may look complicated, it's straightforward to assemble and disassemble. The tree also comes with a high-quality storage bag for safekeeping when the holidays are over. 6.5' Beaded Heirloom Wood Christmas Tree at a Glance Diameter: 27" Material: Maple wood Additional heights: 3' and 5' How We Reviewed the Trees and Why You Should Trust Us Why You Should Trust Us We always research products thoroughly before including them, and test nearly everything. Our reviews are always thorough, in-depth, and honest. We put ourselves in the shoes of the shoppper (because most of the time, we are the shopping!), and make sure that weâre answering the questions that we would want answered in the buying process. How We Chose Our Trees We favored natural-looking trees that are easy to set up. We also took shipping into account and tested trees that arrive not only in style, but with speed. How We Test Our Trees All trees that were reviewed were unboxed, set up (and lit up) by our contributors. They lived with trees and experienced all they had to offer firsthand, so that they could share the real deal with our readers. Got Questions about Christmas Trees? We've Got Answers What size Christmas tree is right for me? The height of your fake Christmas tree first and foremost depends on the height of your ceiling, of course. A good rule of thumb is to keep your tree at least 1.5 feet lower than your ceiling, otherwise it will look crowded. Where can I put my Christmas tree? Anywhere. And you can find a tree to fit any space: petite, tabletop trees are great additions for studio apartments, kids' rooms, dorms, and other small spaces. Slim, pencil trees are good space-savers, too. No matter what size or where you're planning to put your tree, there's a few things to keep in mind: Most Popular 5 Alcove Bedrooms That Make the Most of Small Spaces CLEVER 5 Alcove Bedrooms That Make the Most of Small Spaces By Nicolas Milon 11 Design Trends That Will Break the Algorithm in 2024 CLEVER 11 Design Trends That Will Break the Algorithm in 2024 By Sydney Gore 43 Gifts for Men Under $50 That Theyâll Actually Use CLEVER 43 Gifts for Men Under $50 That Theyâll Actually Use By Erika Owen ADVERTISEMENT Make it a focal point! You don't have to keep the tree in a corner. Feel free to put it centerstage in whatever room it graces. And don't let furniture stand it your wayâmove it around to accommodate that beautiful tree! It's only there for a limited season, after all. Find a spot near a power source. If you have a pre-lit tree (or you plan on adding string lights), access to a power source matters. Watch out for nearby heat or fire. It's best to not put a tree (fake or otherwise) too close to a fireplace, radiator, or spot with frequently lit candles. Safety first! Who should buy fake Christmas trees? Some people want to avoid the hassle (and extra cost) of buying a fresh tree each year, while others are allergic to real trees or are concerned about the fire safety hazard that comes along with real trees (they can become highly flammable as they dry out). Others (including people with pets) know that a real Christmas tree can be bait for disaster. Fresh or faux is really a matter of personal preference, and anyone who wants a fake Christmas tree should go for it. What's the best real Christmas tree to buy? Again, that's completely a matter of personal preference. Trees come in a variety of hues, some with a dark green, some with a blue tint, and others with a bright shade. Some have spiky needles while others are soft to the touch. Trees vary by geographical region and what's native to your area, but some of the most popular options used as Christmas trees across the U.S. include the Fraser Fir, Balsam Fir, Douglas Fir, and Blue Spruce (all of which are available in faux varieties, as well!). Expert Tips to Bring the Best Fake Christmas Trees to Life The easiest way to make your artificial Christmas tree look like a real tree is to, well, cover it up. Go heavier on the decorations this year: Think garland, Christmas lights, pinecones, ornaments, a tree topper, etc. We're talking the works. Check out our go-to holiday decor tips that will make the best Christmas trees look even more magical. Trim your tree with wide, cascading ribbon. Itâs affordable in bulk, doubles as a garland, and covers quite a bit of real estate from low to high. Most Popular 5 Alcove Bedrooms That Make the Most of Small Spaces CLEVER 5 Alcove Bedrooms That Make the Most of Small Spaces By Nicolas Milon 11 Design Trends That Will Break the Algorithm in 2024 CLEVER 11 Design Trends That Will Break the Algorithm in 2024 By Sydney Gore 43 Gifts for Men Under $50 That Theyâll Actually Use CLEVER 43 Gifts for Men Under $50 That Theyâll Actually Use By Erika Owen ADVERTISEMENT This image may contain Velvet Photo: Courtesy of Etsy 2" Wide French Velvet Ribbon: starting at $8, sold by Lace Applique on Etsy BUY NOW Add on tree skirt to complete the overall look. A dead giveawayâno pun intendedâthat your treeâs a fake is the base: that plastic, mechanical-esque tree stand. Cover that metal stand up with a festive tree skirt (or basket!) as you would with real Christmas trees. 15 Best Artificial Christmas Trees of 2023 Most Popular 5 Alcove Bedrooms That Make the Most of Small Spaces CLEVER 5 Alcove Bedrooms That Make the Most of Small Spaces By Nicolas Milon 11 Design Trends That Will Break the Algorithm in 2024 CLEVER 11 Design Trends That Will Break the Algorithm in 2024 By Sydney Gore 43 Gifts for Men Under $50 That Theyâll Actually Use CLEVER 43 Gifts for Men Under $50 That Theyâll Actually Use By Erika Owen ADVERTISEMENT Conell Tree Skirt: $199, sold by Pottery Barn BUY NOW Wrap the trunk of the tree in lights. If your tree doesn't have pre-strung lights, head to the holiday aisle for some white or multicolored lights. They'll draw the eye to the center of the tree and take the attention off of the branches. Besides, you can never have too many lights in your home decor during the holiday season. 15 Best Artificial Christmas Trees of 2023 PrexTex Clear White Christmas Tree Lights with White Wire: Starting at $12, sold by Amazon BUY NOW Add in the live tree cuttings. This tip is genius: Bolster the PVC branches with small sprigs from a real pine tree. Green floral wire is your friend here. Starting closer to the trunk of your artificial tree, adjoin a small, real sprig to a fake branch with a few twists of wire. Repeat as often as youâd like, scattering the pieces consistently around your tree. Youâll get that amazing smell of the season with a fraction of the needles. Visit your local nursery for scrap evergreen or find options on Etsy. You can do this with both bare and flocked artificial Christmas trees and get a stunning result. 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You can go faux, or use the real thing (you can keep real flower cuttings fresher longer by housing stems in water tubes, as florists do). 15 Best Artificial Christmas Trees of 2023 Most Popular 5 Alcove Bedrooms That Make the Most of Small Spaces CLEVER 5 Alcove Bedrooms That Make the Most of Small Spaces By Nicolas Milon 11 Design Trends That Will Break the Algorithm in 2024 CLEVER 11 Design Trends That Will Break the Algorithm in 2024 By Sydney Gore 43 Gifts for Men Under $50 That Theyâll Actually Use CLEVER 43 Gifts for Men Under $50 That Theyâll Actually Use By Erika Owen ADVERTISEMENT Mini Magnolia Picks (Set of 12): Starting at $129, sold by Balsam Hill BUY NOW Shop Cyber Monday Sales
