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With less than a month till Christmas, we’re slowly starting to get some of the preparations in order. We’ve ordered the turkey, stocked up on mulled wine and have just finished decorating our new Christmas tree!
I know it’s a bit early to already have a Christmas tree up, but we got slightly over-excited when the tree arrived and put it up straight away and we couldn’t be happier with it!
A few years ago we saw one of these artificial Christmas trees at a farm shop (it’s by a company called Balsam Hill) and have been slightly obsessed with them ever since – it just looked so real! It was, of course, a larger version and not as slim as ours, but we probably stood in front of it for 20 minutes trying to figure out it was real or not.
Because of the shape of our super-slim tree, it can’t quite pass for a real one, but other than that it’s hard to tell the difference.
The foliage is really realistic (there are some less realistic branches hidden in the middle and bottom for fullness), it’s was really easy to put together and something that I particularly loved are the accessories that it comes with.
It comes with a large bag for easy storage and a small bag that holds additional bulbs in case one of the LEDs should break.
What I really love is that it also came with some silky gloves that made it easy to put the tree up without getting scratches all over – like I said, the foliage is really realistic and will scratch you the same way that a real tree would. I honestly don’t know why every artificial Christmas tree doesn’t come with gloves – it just makes so much sense!
I love that the tree is super slim (it’s a 7.5ft Cathedral Fir) and it’s great if you don’t have a lot of space. We easily managed to fit ours into the tight space between the sofa and built-in shelves. Our tree is also pre-lit which made putting it together really quick (it probably took around an hour).
If there was one slight negative, is that the socket on our tree was a European one (I guess it must have just been a mistake), but it wasn’t a big deal and we just used a travel adapter.
Overall we love the tree. It’s a great addition to our dining room (and to the large one we already have for our living room) and if we ever need a new large tree, we’ll definitely be heading over to Balsam Hill.
If you’re in two minds about getting an artificial Christmas tree, you can order a branch sample kit to give you a better idea of the quality and what the tree will look like.
Something that we like to do to make the tree even more realistic is adding scent sticks (these are the ones that we have) to the tree. They smell amazingly real and if you have a realistic looking tree along with the scent it’s really hard to tell the difference.
There’s nothing that gets you quite into the Christmas spirit as much as a Christmas tree!
What do you think – an artificial Christmas tree or a real one? I know that November is a bit early to have a tree up, but when do you put up your Christmas tree and decorations? Do you have any Christmas traditions?
Trish says
I’ve got a Balsam Hill tree (Nordmann Fir) and although the socket appeared European at first, it was actually British with a British to European adapter on it. I was able to just pull the end off it and make it British. I’m sure you’ll have noticed if yours was like that also, but mentioning just in case. All the best for 2016!
Christine says
Haha, I’ll have to check. Might just be me being totally ditsy as usual! Thanks for letting us know!
Cx
anna says
I absolutely love this tree! it does look like a real one but a slim version.
Christine says
Thanks Anna! We really love it, too.
Cx
Alex W says
As much as I understand you have to advertise brands here- I would have been really disappointed with this. I have to say the tree just doesn’t look real- the proportions are all wrong! I don’t think you can beat a real tree and you can’t fake the smell of one either!
Christine says
We really do love our tree and think that the branches are really realistic – I agree with you that the tree can’t pass for real because of the shape of it though. I totally understand people that would prefer a real tree (or at least a more traditionally shaped artificial one), but for us it isn’t an option at the moment and the only way that we can have a Christmas tree in our dining room is by opting for a space saving version. Hopefully one of these days we’ll have enough room for a large real one.
Cx
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