Following straight on from the last post Christmas Tree Types: Living Trees, that looked at real Christmas trees and the different general types available, here I want to take an overview style look at some of the artificial Christmas trees that can be had over this festive season from vendors either in brick and mortar stores or of course the many online outlets that there are nowadays.

First of all, the vast majority of artificial Christmas trees are meant for putting up in the home, so I’ll deal with these here in this post. These trees are made from a collection of steel, aluminuim, wire and plastic and are usually sold in several pieces that are easily boxed up for ease of transportation and then assembled in the home. When they’re done with, they are then easily disassembled and stored away neatly in their original box.

Depending upon the size of the tree then, it may come in two or three segments with a separate base which the pole which represents the “stem” or “trunk” of the tree easily (in most cases) slips into and is secured with built in clamps or screws.

Assembling a good quality artificial Christmas tree is relatively simple as the largest segment goes into the base and the branches are arranged to look as close to the real thing as possible. Often, there are additional wire side branches that can be extended from the main branches to thicken up the tree. Once the lower section is looking the way you want it, the upper section is slotted home into the top of the trunk of the lower part. The process of arranging the branches is repeated as for the lower section.

If the tree is a tall one, a third section is then added to the top and the whole thing fussed over to get it looking at its best. Then the decorating starts.

Some artificial Christmas trees come ready decorated with built in lights and are the easiest things in the world to get assembled and looking perfect in the space of several minutes! The more labour intensive tress will of course require manual decorating, but personally, I believe this is part of the overall fun of putting up a tree! While a real tree is more traditional and feels better, modern high quality artificial trees are so good now that from a distance its hard to tell the difference between real and the better quality artificial Christmas trees!

They come in so many shapes, to mimic the various live variations of tree from spruce to cypress and fir. They also come in an assortment of colours from the traditional shades of green, to blue, white, red and even black. Different coloured trees tend to favour different coloured decorations and lights, so be aware of what your buying so that both tree and decorations will match.

Whichever type of colour from the range of many different artificial Christmas trees you decide to go with this season, make sure you buy the best you can afford as the better the quality, the more years it will last and stay looking good year after year.

Christmas Tree