If decorated correctly and taken care of, artificial Christmas trees can look quite stunning.
But among the dozen or more trees we’ve tried since 2016, our top recommendation is the 7.5-foot National Tree Company Feel Real Downswept Douglas Fir. Any home can benefit from this versatile, realistic, and reasonably priced product.
7.5-foot National Tree Company Feel Real Downswept Douglas Fir
Compared with both costlier and more affordable artificial Christmas trees, the National Tree Company Feel Real Downswept Douglas Fir (PEDD1-D12-75) provides a good compromise between cost, realism, and ease of set up.
This artificial tree has nearly 2,000 lifelike polyethylene branch tips. It looks like a living tree due to its 37% polyethylene ratio, which is quite higher than normal.
With 750 built-in LED bulbs, its branches are well illuminated, and the lights switch from all-white to multicolor or a mix of both, enhancing its unusual versatility.
While most trees need you to find the plugs in the foliage and attach them manually, the Power Connect system on this tree does it automatically when you stack up its three sections.
Balsam Hill’s 7.5-foot Vermont White Spruce Flip Tree Color + Clear LED
This tree has a higher percentage of realistic branches than National Tree’s Downswept Douglas Fir, which makes it appear closer to life, especially from a distance.
Besides, it has two-and-a-half times more lights (1,620 versus 750), creating a luxurious display most of our testers preferred. As with the Downswept Douglas Fir, the Vermont White Spruce’s lights connect automatically through plugs within the trunk.
The wheels on the tree’s base are an appreciated feature among our test group–this tree weighs over 90 pounds due to its numerous realistic branches, and the wheels make it much easier to move it into place and out of storage.