WONDERING what the benefits of purchasing a pre-lit Christmas tree over a real one are?
For starters, the cost: real Nordman fir trees can often start at £30 or £40 – and that’s for the mini ones. For a dramatic 7ft or 8ft tree, you’re looking at paying £80 and upwards. Plus, you’ll need a new one annually.
By contrast, an artificial tree might set you back a couple of hundred pounds initially, but it will last for years (provided you have decent space to store it well).
You can also save money – and faff – on decorations and lights: many of the artificial trees come pre-lit, and often accessorized, with pinecones, berries and the like.
Just think of it: no more wires to get tangled up in! Pre-lit Christmas trees usually come with a convenient stand, too.
If you’re thinking about ditching real trees in favour of artificial ones for environmental reasons, we commend you – although a plastic tree made and shipped over from China is unlikely to shave much off the carbon footprint – unless you treat it well and reuse it year after year after year.
So invest in a gorgeous pre-lit tree you’ll want to hang onto – here's our selection of the best pre-lit Christmas trees on the market.
Best 7ft pre-lit Christmas tree: 7ft Scandinavian Blue Spruce
- Busybee 7ft Artificial Christmas Tree, £199.99 from Amazon – buy here
One of the big benefits of getting an artificial Christmas tree? You can have a finished product ready and upright in minutes, without having to stress about the decorating.
This 7-foot, flame-retardant tree has 400 warm white LED lights, as well as a mix of red and bronze baubles, bows, festive messages and a rattan star tree topper all included (plus a metal base to keep it all together). The lights twinkle, flash, glow, make waves or stay static for variety, and it breaks down into a few parts for easy storage.
The reviews are great across the board too, with one customer writing, "I rarely write amazon reviews but felt I had to with this. This is a fab product and great value for money. The tree is beautiful and looks really expensive and you get loads of decorations, I didn't use them all!"
Best 6ft pre-lit Christmas tree: WeRChristmas Pre-lit Christmas Tree
- WeRChristmas Pre-lit Snow Coated Tree, for £109.34 on Amazon – buy here
If your Christmas tree lights policy is 'the more the merrier', then you'll enjoy this pre-lit tree complete with snowy-tipped branches, which features 300 warm white LEDs.
The pinecones and berries interspersed among the branches mean this won't require any decorating energy expenditure from you at all – unless you want to add more that is!
The lights flash at different speeds you can control and they include twinkle, static, fade, chasing and flash options.
Best slim pre-lit Christmas tree: Indoor Outdoor Pre-Lit Potted Tree 4ft
- Indoor Outdoor 4ft Pre-lit Potted Tree, £125 on Cox & Cox – buy here
Cox & Cox's slim pre-lit Christmas tree is a gorgeous addition to your home and is just 4ft tall, perfect for smaller spaces.
The tree is covered with amber lights for a warm glow in the home – and is a standout for its decadent, realistic-looking branches.
As well as being pre-lit, it's pre-potted and easy to assemble. Use it indoors or out.
Best small pre-lit Christmas tree: Pre-Lit Christmas Tree In Willow Basket 1.5ft
- Pre-Lit Mini Christmas Tree – 1.5ft, for £35 on The White Company – buy here
This perfect sub-2ft tree from The White Company is a handy buy if you have a smaller space or want to perk up your office area or holiday rental with some Christmas spirit.
The pre-lit design includes battery-operated fairy lights and a gorgeous wicker pot, plus it has a wonderfully realistic look, shape and colour.
Best white pre-lit Christmas tree: Busybee 6ft White Christmas Tree with 300 LEDs Lights
- Busybee 6ft White Christmas Tree with 300 LEDs Lights, £169.99 from Amazon – buy here
An all-white tree can really give the grotto feel to your living room, so we're loving the Busybee 6ft White Christmas Tree with 300 LED lights.
Made from non-toxic PVC plastic, this tree comes with assorted ornaments that you can style as OTT or minimalist as you wish.
As there's insulated copper wire, the lights are kept at a low temperature which means they're safe to touch even after many hours of lighting up your home.
Best pre-lit Christmas tree with snow: Argos Home 6ft Pre-Lit Snow Tipped Christmas Tree
- Argos Home 6ft Pre-Lit Snow Tipped Christmas Tree, £90 from Argos – buy here
Argos' pre-lit Christmas tree with snow has 180 multi-functional warm white lights and 560 tips.
Reviewers say it's "easy to assemble", "looks amazing" and is "great quality".
It's 6ft tall, flame-retardant and comes with a metal stand.
Best pop-up pre-lit Christmas tree: Pop-up Pre-Lit Christmas tree
- Pre-Lit Pop Up Christmas Tree, from £79.99 from Christmas Tree World – buy here
This pre-lit tree's pop-up design makes it pretty effortless to put up and put away.
One happy customer said "So easy to put together it took about 15 minutes altogether including tweaking the branches, it looks amazing, so happy, excellent buy".
It comes in two different sizes – 6ft and 7ft, and has warm white LED lights.
Best multicoloured Christmas tree: WeRChristmas Pre-lit Windsor Fir Christmas Tree
- WeRChristmas Pre-lit Windsor Fir Christmas Tree, for £299.99 on Amazon – buy here
With 500 multicolour and warm white LED flashing lights, this WeRChristmas twinkling tree will definitely put you in a festive mood.
The 7-foot design is full and natural-looking, and includes a metal stand, multi-function controller with pedal switch and a transformer.
Most realistic pre-lit Christmas tree: The Ultra Devonshire Fir Pre-lit
- The Ultra Devonshire Fir Pre-lit (4ft to 12ft), from £89.99at Christmas Tree World – buy here
For a realistic-looking tree with reusable benefits, the Ultra Devonshire Fir at Christmas Tree World is a favourite.
It has multicolour and warm white LEDs, as well as eight different lighting functions. Available in sizes from 4ft-12ft, it just requires a bit of 'fluffing' to look full and fantastic.
Best investment tree: John Lewis Cotswold Potted Pre-lit Christmas Tree
- John Lewis Cotswold Potted Pre-lit Christmas Tree, 7ft, £579 from John Lewis – buy here
If you're after a fake tree that you can pull out of the loft every time the festive season swoops back around, then it's worth investing in one that you can keep for life like this John Lewis bad boy.
This potted tree comes pre-lit with 900 pure white micro LEDS (which is a lot), the branches are full, the colour is rich and the differen-sized branches give a realistic feel.
We Tested: Ulverston Green Spruce Pre-Lit Christmas Tree
- 7ft Pre-lit Ulverston Green Spruce Artificial Christmas Tree, £399.99 from Haydens Garden World – buy here
Pros: Very easy to assemble, excellent quality, looks realistic, lights are perfectly positioned and are the ideal brightness and shade, good width and spacing to add decorations
Cons: Light settings don't change (i.e. no twinkling)
The first thing we noticed when unpacking the Christmas tree was the quality, it looked and felt sturdy and very few needles fell off during the installation process.
It was extraordinarily easy to put together too. We needn't have looked at the instructions to have figured out how to set it up, and it didn't take long either.
Looks-wise it's really realistic – the varying greens of the tree represent mature and new growth, and the lights are perfectly positioned on every branch. It has 800 LED lights, which aren't multi-functional (this was our only "con" – though we were nit-picking) and have a life expectancy of 10,000 hours.
The spacing of the branches is really even which leaves lots of room to add decorations.
The tree has free delivery, a lifetime guarantee, and came packaged in a lovely sturdy box which will certainly get reused year on year – though we might also invest in a heavy-duty storage bag to keep it in the best possible condition.
This Ulverston Green Spruce Pre-lit Christmas tree is a little on the pricier side, but for the size, quality, ease of use and the guarantee, we would say it's worth it.
What is a pre-lit Christmas tree?
A pre-lit Christmas tree can save you quite a bit of hassle at Christmas – no more getting knotted in Christmas lights.
It's typically an artificial, reusable tree that's been pre-wired with lights – these can be warm white LEDs or multicolour lights, and can be found on fibre optic trees or those resembling real-world firs.
What are the benefits of a pre-lit Christmas tree?
Pre-lit trees win points for reusability, convenience and ease.
They can be stored away compactly from one year to the next, and they can also save you money since you won't have to buy a tree each year.
Most are fitted with LED lights to last for years, and they simply plug in and are ready to go – they're the hassle-free option for Christmas.
If you're obsessed by decorating, a pre-lit tree can still work for you: just put the baubles on when it arrives.
Is a pre-lit Christmas tree worth the money?
While pre-lit Christmas trees do tend to be more expensive – most larger ones start anywhere from £80-£200, converts say they are absolutely worth the money.
They save you time not having to untangle lights from trees and can be reused multiple times – which means you could quickly find they're cheaper than buying a new tree annually.
Look out for Black Friday and post-Christmas sales on pre-lit trees.
Do pre-lit Christmas trees last?
If you treat your pre-lit Christmas tree well – e.g. don't put it up outside when it's an indoor tree, store it lovingly instead of chucking it down the cellar stairs – then you could easily have your pre-lit Christmas tree for up to 10 years.
Invest in one with LED lights to ensure those lights keep twinkling Christmas after Christmas.
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