You walk through the aisles of your big box retailer and you see dozens of Artificial Christmas Trees. It’s hard not to think of the convenience and low maintenance of a fake tree this year. The retailer has a large selection of trees in many price ponts. What’s the difference between the trees.

First, be warned that large retailers are not about quality they are about price so the trees in their stores represent the bottom of the market. There is a place for trees like this, but if you are looking for a realistic looking artificial tree, you need to look elsewhere. You can either go to a local nursery, most also sell fake Christmas trees or if you want the broadest selection shop online.

Artificial Christmas Trees are sold in both lit and unlit versions. I’ll give pointers for both lighted trees and traditional trees. Before you decide on any tree, decide shape, style and height. If you like long needles or short, bushy or narrow, flocked or natural – these are just a few of the choices you need to make.

What’s a “tip”? A “tip” is the end of a Christmas Tree Branch. Instead of leaves an evergreen has needles and tips. One branch is filled with several tips and each tip has hundreds of needles.

Traditional Christmas Trees (unlit): To select an unlit tree you can judge the fullness my the number of “Tips” that are on the tree. Generally a 6’ tree will have 800-1000 tips to look very full. An 8’ tree will have over 1200 tips. To give a very rough rule of thumb the best quality trees will have more than 100 tips per foot in most traditional styles.

Lighted Artificial Christmas Trees: There are usually two factors in judging a lit Christmas Tree. Because of the ease of use, lit Christmas Trees are now the most common available. Consider the “tips but the lit tree will likely have less tips because the lights are strung to the tips. A quality lit tree will still have over 100 tips per lineal foot, but may not be quite as dense as an unlit tree. Cheap trees usually have only a few hundred lights on a 6’ tree. A better quality tree will have over 400 lights (with the exception of some slim and half trees).

Artificial Christmas Trees add beauty and convenience to the holiday season.