The Best Artificial Christmas Tree (and most affordable)

Christmas Tree// Tartan Tree Skirt

We still have a few days left of October, but I just had to put up this post because my Christmas tree is on crazy sale right now. I, admittedly, had to put on some Christmas music to even get me in the right mood to post about holiday decor, haha!! Anyway, it's regularly $379 and right now it is on sale for $199. 

Last year was the first Christmas in our home and so we were in need of a tree. I wanted an artificial one because I was concerned about Henry getting into a real one and eating the pine needles and all of that. I also like to put mine up before Thanksgiving (as we don't host at our house) so a real Christmas tree would likely not make it all the way to the new year so artificial just makes sense for us. 

Last year in early November, I went to ALL of the stores one day with my mom to try and find us a tree. We seriously looked everywhere and took the entire day to browse. I think it's hard to find a faux Christmas tree without seeing them in person because some can look so cheap/fake/tacky. So, we ended up with this tree and it checked off all of my boxes. It is:

- Full looking. There are no gaping holes in it and it does not look sparse. It takes quite a while to fluff it because of this but it is SO worth it. 

- Each branch has dimension because of the variation in color. The tree itself is not just one shade of green. It has a very slight color variation which helps to give it the depth to look like a real tree. 

- I didn't care about it being pre-lit. The lights on any tree are never reliable and always have issues so I would actually prefer to string my own, but these came with lights, which was fine. Usually, a pre-lit tree is much pricier but on sale, this was such a good price, so I didn't mind. I like a tree with a LOT of lights so I think last year we added two more strands to it and if the lights fail in years to come, it really won't matter to me because I will string my own!

- SO easy to put up and store away. Seriously it comes in 3 pieces and also the metal stand is included. We just store it away in the box it came in (which is actually quite compact). I had ordered a special storage sleeve thing for our tree and I ended up returning it because the box was a better option for us. 

- You get a 2-year warranty for the lights and a 5-year warranty for the actual tree.

- I bought ours in-store, but they are currently offering both free shipping and curbside pickup. The box fit in my sedan! with the seats down. 

- The tree does not shed at all. Needles stay intact and don't make a mess. There is also no fake snow or glitter you have to deal with. 

This was a quick iPhone snap at night last year so you can see it in different lighting. I might even add one more string of lights this year, ha!! I just LOVE the glow that a tree gives off. Also, a bit off-topic, but seeing this photo is fun because we have made so much progress in terms of decorating our living room since last year! 

I don't have any links for the ornaments that we have. I have a lot of ornaments from my childhood and some from my fiancé's childhood plus ornaments we have collected from travels over the years or special milestones. I don't love buying a ton of random ornaments that don't have meaning behind them, but I do have a set of colored balls that help to fill out the tree a little better until we get to the point where all of our ornaments are collected. And the most random place to buy beautiful ornaments is Cracker Barrel. There is one in Robinson (outside of Pittsburgh) and we randomly went last year after a Costco trip (it's super close by) and they had unique and well-made ornaments. We spent like 30 minutes 'oohing and ahhing' at them!!! I haven't been back since then, but I want to go back this year and look at them all again, ha!