Christmas Trees

Christmas Trees

An artificial Christmas tree is bought once and used for ten years or more, so the decision is worth ten minutes rather than ten seconds. Height comes first and it is where most people get caught out: measure floor to ceiling, then take off the height of your topper and the depth of the stand, because a 7ft tree in a room with a 7ft6 ceiling leaves nothing above it. Width matters as much as height and almost nobody checks it, since a full fir at 7ft can be well over a metre across at the base. Then the finish, then how it goes together.

Tip count and branch type separate a tree that looks full from one that looks sparse. Feel real or PE tipped branches use moulded needles at the outside of the tree for realism, with cheaper PVC filling the interior. Hinged branches swing down from a central pole and take minutes to set up, where hooked branches have to be fitted one at a time. And a tree only looks finished with enough lights on it: the working rule is roughly 100 bulbs per foot, so a 7ft tree wants about 700.

What Size Christmas Tree Do You Need

A 6ft Christmas tree suits an apartment or a smaller sitting room. 7ft and 7.5ft are the sizes most Irish homes buy and the ones that sell out first. An 8ft tree needs a high ceiling to look right rather than crowded, and 9ft and 10ft trees are for a hall, a stairwell or a double height room. Check the stated base diameter as well as the height, because that is what decides whether it fits the floor space.

Slim, Pencil Pine and Pop Up Christmas Trees

A slim or pencil pine tree gives you full height in a fraction of the footprint, which is why it suits a hallway, a corner or a room where the tree shares space with furniture. Pop up and bendy trees go up in seconds and store small, which makes them the sensible second tree for a landing or a bedroom.

Pre Lit, Snowy and Frosted Christmas Trees

A pre lit Christmas tree arrives with the lights already wound through and saves the worst job of the year, though the trade is that a failed run cannot simply be replaced. A snowy or frosted tree looks finished with very little on it, which saves money on decorations but commits you to a white and silver palette. A plain green fir takes any scheme you throw at it.

What Goes on the Tree

Tree lights sized to the height, shatterproof baubles in packs rather than singles, and a skirt to cover the stand and catch the needles. Buy the skirt with the tree so the diameter matches. See Christmas tree lights, baubles and tree skirts.

Trees here come from Everlands, covering Killington Fir, Geneva Fir, Alpbach Fir, Grandis Fir, Monarch Pine and the Pencil Pine and Snowy Pencil Pine at 6ft, 7ft, 8ft and 10ft, plus a pre lit Snowy Killington. National Tree Company supplies the Feel Real range including the Snowy Dorchester Pine at 7ft and 9ft and the Newberry Spruce slim and frosted at 7.5ft. Puleo covers the Kensington Fir at 7.5ft and 9ft and the Arcadia Pine, Festive the Ben Nevis at 7ft and 8ft and a bendy PVC tree at 6ft, Kaemingk the Grandis Fir at 8ft, and Classic Christmas the Colorado Fir at 7ft and 8ft.

Trees are the one Christmas purchase where waiting costs you. Demand climbs hard from late October and peaks in November, ahead of almost everything else in the category, and the 7ft and 8ft sizes in the popular finishes sell through first. The genuine Christmas tree sale prices come in late December and January, which is the right time to buy for next year but no use for this one. See what is reduced now in clearance.

Everything here is delivered nationwide across the Republic of Ireland, with click and collect at our Athlone store on Shannon Retail Park, Dublin Road.