Go for it, especially if there are good reviews for the tree. For that price, it's probably hard to pass up. I haven't had a live tree in decades and have come to prefer the ease of the artificial.

Get it. The savings and convenience are worth it. I will say during the first few years we switched to fake, I still worried about watering the tree.

Thanks. i clicked and gave them payment info. my cc got hung up and i got a potential fraud notice from Chase. i think we are set now and i dont know if I’m more nervous about the tree or worried that my card has been hacked.

Up until 5 years ago we always had two trees - an artificial tree that I put in the living room the day after Thanksgiving and a live tree in the family room. The artificial tree was great because it went up early and I was able to enjoy the holiday decorations for 5 or 6 weeks. And although nothing beats the scent and touch of a live tree - it is a lot of work for a relatively short period of time - not to mention how the prices have gone up. Plus I always bought a huge live tree and it was getting difficult for the 2 of us to handle it.

When we moved I only needed one tree in this house so I treated myself to a really nice artificial tree. Balsam Hill had a pop-up store in my local mall so I was able to see them in person. There were several that I liked - but this was in early December and I didn't want to pay those prices. I happened to stop into my local nursery and found one that i liked even better so I bought it. I've never regretted it. It has several different needles and mixed in between them are a soft, feathery vinyl needle - so it doesn't feel like a hard plastic pine. My only mistake was I wish I had selected the next size up - this house has 9' ceilings and a larger tree would have looked better.

Maire

That's a really nice looking tree, and an excellent price. I say go for it!

I’ll let you know how I’m feeling next Dec—- thanks for your support!

If you hate it you can probably sell it on FB marketplace for the price you paid for it.

I was admiring that tree, too!

We’ve had a fake 9-footer since 2018 and really like it. The room our tree goes in has wall-to-wall carpet and I couldn’t take shedding needles anymore.

We gave up our live trees due to allergies, never have looked back. Excellent deal!

Do you have a link to that tree? I'm not finding any trees under $175 on the Balsam Hill site.

https://frhnl.shop/

Terezosa - I found this on FB. all the trees are about $69

That site looks pretty scammy.

I agree that it looks scammy. It's definitely not the official Balsam Hill website.

Lisam, Unfortunately those 'clearance' sales on Facebook are often not real. I get them on my page all the time for LLBean Closeout, and they are not legit. You may want to call your CC company.

Ugh, I'm so sorry I persuaded you to go for it. I should have known that the price was too good to be true.

uhh, im not usually so silly and have never linked to anything staight thru fb before.

Yes to artificial trees 😃

No to FB scammers 😟

Definitely keep an eye on your account. I hope you receive the tree you want, but I'm thinking it may turn out to be a knock-off copycat.

I would just call your credit card company and cancel the charge. When you Google their "contact us" domain, it's a garbage result written in Chinese. I suspect they intend to send you a Charlie Brown Christmas tree, if anything.

Oh gosh, call your cc company. I got scammed and gave my credit card to a fake IG account, I called and they immediately canceled the charges and the card.

Thanks, i have spoken to my cc co. the acct is closed. i do need to wait until the charge actually posts to dispute it. im feeling pretty foolish.

I saw that on FB and while tempting, I figured BH doesn't need a clearance company to move their products. I've toyed with the idea of getting a fake tree because it's getting more and more difficult for me to put up a live tree, (I can handle the expense) but I realized handling a fake tree, carrying it upstairs for storage, etc. wasn't going to be any easier. That, plus the plastics issue and that they all eventually end up in the landfill. Live Christmas trees are a sustainable crop and when they are dead they can be returned to the earth.

Don't beat yourself up. The pages on the website are copied directly from the Balsam Hill site. Macy's is having a good online sale on their artificial trees.

Oh yeah, despite all the cybersecurity training we have to do, it is very easy to get scammed. Don't feel bad about it, but at least the cc companies are quick to react when fraud is involved. As long as you have another card you can use, it should be fine.

Yeah, i have a back up card that i rarely use. and then there is that cash stuff also rarely gets used.

We have cybersecurity training too, and the other day I opened an email I shouldn't have. I did realize it right away and did not click on the link in the email, but still --- busted. It was a test, and now I am in remedial cybersecurity training. 😔

Psst... real trees.

Maybe this the universe telling you to remain, ”camp real tree” 😀

I love a real tree, but we did have a period of fake tree in our life. Eventually the built in light stopped working. And then mice overwintered in it in our garage, so I had to wash it😡. Then I just got rid of it.

We mostly have a real tree now, but it depends what’s happening. Ours tend to be fairly Charlie Brown-ish, as we just grab something from the woods where we currently live. Dh also built a wooden tree out of pallets that we sometimes use..

Thanks, universe, I am convinced. Real it shall continue to be.

Real tree, real cash, real person selling them in her yard in town. And they are really nice trees. We started buying from her after our two favorite tree farms closed and sold to developers. For us, it’s not about a spot to hang ornaments, it’s the whole kielbasa, including the experiences of acquiring the tree, and afterwards taking it to the ”farm” for the camel they have there.

taking it to the ”farm” for the camel they have there.

???

Do camels eat trees?

Did anyone tell Balsam Hill?

The REAL Balsam Hill is having a 50% off sale. They are expensive, but worth it.

https://www.balsamhill.com/?gclid=Cj0KCQiAlKmeBhCkARIsAHy7WVsMAjaXCvMi5mmOyPkw4u9bcOXmc89n_mJ9OWOvfT16LweDmeKUOi8aAlJiEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

I bought mine at an import store in the 90"s. It was expensive for the time and not prelit. I would stay with not prelit, because that is what usually breaks first.

I have been wanting a real tree again, haven't had one since 1972. but the sold out before I bought one.

That may be a good thing. We used my fake one and it looked fine. My grandson cam over and said their real one had been shedding terribly since it was put up/

Mine is now free every year and if I keep using it, well, it keeps it out of the land fill.

ETA: I'm sorry you got scammed. I want some of the clothes they keep showing on every web page, but if you look, all the models have the same pose for all kinds of clothes.

After years of getting a horrid "cold" each Christmas, a savvy allergist figured out that I had developed a deathly allergy to having a real tree in the house. And there are a surprising amount of stories about real trees and bug infestations. It happened to a friend, I never had that issue, thank goodness.

Everyone has their thing. Artificial trees for the win at my house.

I've had a real Balsam Hill tree for 6-7 years. I never thought I'd get one, but it's actually really nice. Every year when I take it out of the box, I think, it's so fake looking. But once it's up and I have our old family ornaments on it, it looks just as real and loved as the actual real trees of yore. It doesn't cost anything anymore, needles don't drop, no bugs, and I don't have to remember to water it. I do miss the smell of a real tree, but Thyme's Frazier Fir candle is a close second.

ETA: And I don't miss having to string lights every year.

Mtn, it’s like a children’s farm and yes, camels will eat nearly any vegetation. The farm asks for Christmas trees because it’s a change of pace and texture from their usual food and grasses so it’s like stimulus for them. And they play with it!

We bought our first artificial tree this year in Florida at Lowes. It is so easy.

But, DH and I both enjoyed figuring out how much lighting we wanted. The prelit has thousands.

Not sure if they all come with the choices if light from white to multi and various fade in and out and blinking features. It was fun changing it up.

If Keanu is unavailable, more’s the pity, I could referee because I don’t care about either kind of xmas tree. I stopped putting one up 20+ years ago when I realized the amount of work required did not offset what little fun it was. #teamnotree

hh, he just got back to me, he’ll referee! I think he’ll need an assistant though. ;)

Ok, line up, kids!

Fake trees do need quite a bit of branch bending and fluffing each year. I just put on a pair of cheap fleece gloves and go to town.

I bought a retro looking "tinsel tree" about 20 years ago, before I knew that fake trees are bad, so it's grandfathered in.

But will I ever buy a new one? Hell no. Fake trees are bad for the environment compared to real ones. Tree farms clean the air, and the trees can be composted, chipped, or used for firewood when done (as long as you don't cover them in tinsel or fake snow). On the other hand, the manufacturing of fake trees is horrendous, plus once you're done with them, they're a giant mass of plastic that will sit in the landfill.

If you absolutely must, I strongly suggest you consider second hand. Think about it this way, many people might want to offload really decent ones when they move or downsize. (Secondhand is one of the ways I shop guilt free when I'm feeling the itch to buy something. Yesterday I found a cashmere Eileen Fisher cardigan at Goodwill for $24!) Check thrift stores starting around Oct/Nov, or online consignment stores, FB marketplace, etc. Ask around if any friends or neighbors are getting rid of theirs.

We had one of those silver aluminum trees in 1971 and 1972 with blue glass balls It had the color wheel. We were SO uptown. Like an idiot I got rid of it in the 80''s at a garage sale for absolutely nothing. They are worth a fortune now of course!

My faux tree is a vintage aluminum one by Reynolds. I love it, except for the fact that I can't put lights on it. I think I paid around $14 for it so many years ago, I lost count. The prices for real trees here this past year were just stupid, IMO. Imagine spending over $150 for something that gets tossed to the curb after a few weeks. My thrifty nature just can't justify it.

I grab the free trimmings @ Home Depot every year, make sprays and arrange them in containers, and they give us that nice cut tree smell.

carolb_w_fl_coastal_9b, I wonder if that's true with the new LED lights? I've seen some models where the bulbs are completely encapsulated in resin -- meaning bulbs can't fall off and expose the wiring. Plus the ones with USB plug are extremely low voltage -- ours are 5V. I have these from REI, which seem good so far.

I bought a retro looking "tinsel tree" about 20 years ago, before I knew that fake trees are bad, so it's grandfathered in.

This is correct, Seattle. But anything inside of 20 years is not.

I think of the cost of a real tree as not that different from what I might spend on a special floral arrangement. I also have a fake tree, because it was the only way to get a flocked one. However, it is near impossible to hang any ornaments on it because it is flocked like it was in an Alpine blizzard,

Lots of fake trees change hands around here via Freecycle and Buy Nothing sites on Facebook and Next Door. Some people asked for them, others just posted to offload them. Some sold for very little $ on FB marketplace.

Team real tree here. As we say at Longwood, real Christmas trees are a Pennsylvania crop and it's good to be able to support them.

Second, we have an incredible tree stand (Genie something or other). You hold the tree upright in the stand and pump a pedal a few times until the built in bell rings.. When that happens the tree is perfectly straight and rock solid.

I’m not team one over the other. I love real trees, but fake trees have come a long way and sometimes ease of use wins.

Jojoco - could it be the Krinner tree stand?

It's the best stand we've ever had - hefty, but easy to use.

https://krinner.us/

We used to do real for years. Now we do fake. I have the lights, garland and unbreakable ornaments all wired on and stow it in the attic. Bring it downstairs, put on the breakable ornaments, plug it in, done. I actually have 2 trees that way...one is the larger one in the library, the other is a small one that sits on the bookcase in the FR.

I started doing that with my in-laws who were in their 70s in a NYC apartment and the place was rather dismal without any xmas decor. (MIL was blind.) So I bought them the small tree and had it completely decorated and wired, so all they had to do was bring it out and plug it in...made a huge difference. After they passed, I adopted the tree and liked the ease of it.

I think if we had children and grands, we would do live and make decorating a thing...like my mother's trim-a-tree party she had for us kids for many years. But as we don't, we don't. Seems I spend enough time putting up all the other decor in the house that I get my fill without trimming a tree.

I bought a new pre-lit one this year and no more connecting plugs anymore. You just pop the ends of the tree into each other and the plugs run through the middle. The easiest fake tree i've ever had.