Christmas Tree Affordability

Contrary to popular belief, artificial Christmas trees are far more affordable than live ones. Yes, you can easily spend up to $300 on an artificial tree and just $40 on a real one, but when you buy an artificial tree, you are only making that purchase once. With live trees, you have to buy them again and again, year after year. The affordability of artificial Christmas trees really becomes obvious when you buy them on clearance after the holidays. They’re usually on sale for fifty, sixty or sometimes seventy percent off. If you find a clearance deal on a $300 tree for half off or less, then the artificial Christmas tree becomes a lot more affordable than live ones.

>

Fire Safety

Once upon a time, many people believed that live Christmas trees posed a fire danger and that’s why they converted to artificial trees instead. While this may have been true at one point in time, it’s really not as much of a concern anymore. As long as you use safe lights that don’t give off heat and keep your tree watered and properly maintained, there should be little to no danger of fire.

It’s All A Matter of Convenience

When it comes to convenience, artificial and live Christmas trees are pretty much equal. Yes, with a live Christmas tree you have to vacuum up needles, but you also don’t have to spend hours putting together the branches and lights. (Unless you have a pre-lit tree like me. Then it’s like opening up an umbrella and viola! – just start decorating!) So the debate comes down to this . . . live and artificial Christmas trees both have a place in the traditional holiday season. It’s all really a matter of personal preference.

LED lights are not new. They’ve been around for years and you probably didn’t know what they were or didn’t notice them. LED stands for “light emitting diode” and are the very same lights that you’ve been looking at in your digital alarm clock, calculator, DVD player and many other types of electronic equipment. They were invented in the 1920’s but weren’t used in electronics until 1962. In years past, marketers have tried to sell LED Christmas tree lights to consumers, but the LED craze just didn’t catch on because LED’s weren’t very bright. That is, until now. 

Like many things, LED’s have greatly been improved and outdoor LED Christmas lights and tree lights are no exception. Slowly but surely, LED’s are becoming more and more popular. Why? Several reasons. First, people are more environmentally conscious and LED’s certainly meet eco-friendly standards. LED Christmas lights use 90% less power than traditional incandescent lights. The standard incandescent Christmas light lasts for 3,000 hours of usage. LED’s last for up to 150,000 hours. This means you’ll pay a bit more for the LED’s, but you’ll recoup the extra expense because they last so much longer. LED’s are also gaining popularity due to their safety factor. Because LED’s use so much less energy, they are far cooler than incandescent light bulbs. Using LED Christmas tree lights greatly reduces the risk of fire. And because LED’s have plastic bulbs, they are just as pretty as glass bulbs but are much more durable and will last a long time. 

So now we know that these LED’s are eco-friendly and they last longer. But the questions still remains, “Will they ruin Christmas?” Chances are, they won’t. LED Christmas lights are much brighter now than before. In tests conducted by Consumer Reports, they discovered that large LED bulbs were dimmer than incandescent, but the mini-LED’s were brighter. Still not sold? The manufacturers of LED’s are working hard to impress the consumer and you can now buy LED Christmas lights in an impressive array of pretty bulbs. Although you will know that they’re LED Christmas lights, no one else will. They will all just be impressed with your holiday decorating skills!