SPONSORED POST | OH CHRISTMAS TREE

I am crazy for Christmas. It’s my favourite time of year. Seriously, I love it. This year I was lucky enough to be contacted by Balsam Hill and asked if I would like to test drive one of their artificial Christmas trees.

I didn’t hesitate. I think it’s the fastest I’ve ever responded to an email! I mean it was a no brainer, if they’re good enough for Oprah and Ellen they’re good enough for a gnome!

After a week of moving house I rewarded myself with setting up our Christmas trees. (It’s a Christmas miracle I managed to put it off this long. I seriously considered setting the tree up before all of our stuff had been moved into the house!)  I was so excited I didn’t even bother getting out of my pajamas!

Now we have an artificial Christmas tree already – it’s a trusty Target special. We’ve had it for a number of years and it’s suited our needs; until now. I had no idea the difference in artificial Christmas trees!

Here’s me setting up the Target Christmas Tree:

…laying out all the pieces…

…fully assembled; pre fluff…

I assembled the Target Christmas tree and then moved on to the Balsam Hill artificial Christmas tree.

…the tree comes with assembly gloves and a storage bag…

I opened the box and literally squealed. The tree comes with it’s very own storage bag and assembly gloves.  How’s that for attention to detail and luxury!

It was a family event. The Little Man could hardly contain himself!

I put on the assembly gloves and now I understood why Michael Jackson always wore a glove. It just elevates everything to classy.

…Christmas jazz hands…

(And yes, I sleep in a Johnny Cupcakes t-shirt; just to ensure I have sweet dreams!)

…it’s like an early Christmas gift…

The tree comes tied with a Balsam Hill ribbon. It’s so luxe and now I know why Oprah is always so happy.

…it’s all just so exciting…

(The ribbon also comes in handy if you want to have a Snow White moment and tie your hair back out of your face.)

…little helpers need gloves too…

I made sure the Little Man had his gloves on as well. All those involved with handling the tree needed to be properly attired.

…this artificial Christmas tree feels so real…

Once the tree was assembled I got down to the task of plumping and fluffing out the trees.  The Balsam Hill artificial Christmas tree came with LED Christmas lights already attached to the tree.

At the time they were kind of a pain to plump and fluff around, but they really came into their own later on in the process.  The assembly gloves are awesome! I originally thought they would be a gimmick but I was totally proven wrong. They make the assembly and plumping and fluffing so much easier. I even ended up using them with our original tree to help make the process easier. (They stop the needles sticking you and hurting or catching on clothing.)

The branches are vastly different between the two trees.

…Target Christmas tree branches…

…Balsam Hill artificial Christmas tree branches…

The Balsam Hill artificial Christmas tree looks so much more life like.  It looks just like those trees you see in the Hallmark Christmas movies!

…you missed a spot…

…both trees plumped and fluffed…

Once the trees were ready I set about the fun task of decorating them.  This is really where the Balsam Hill artificial Christmas tree came into it’s own.

With our Target tree I had to fight to get all the lights on it and arranged.  I didn’t have to do this with the Balsam Hill artificial Christmas tree because it already had it’s lights on.

The Balsam Hill artificial Christmas tree branch structure was an absolute dream to hang ornaments on. Our Target tree is horrible and has been since we bought it.  The way the leaves are done make the ornaments slide off and it’s such a wrestle to get them on there in the first place. I hate it. I collect a lot of precious ornaments and I hate that sound of hearing one of them crashing through the tree and hitting the floor. Hate it! The Balsam Hill artificial Christmas tree won’t let this happen, the leaves hold tight to the ornament hanger.

Because this is our 2nd tree I decided to take advantage of Spotlight’s 50% off Christmas decorations and I picked up some especially for our Balsam Hill artificial Christmas tree.  I went with a “jewel” toned theme and I love it.

…the finishing touch…

Once it was decorated I just had to put the star on top and it was ready to be the ambassador of our festive season.

(Does anyone have any advice on how to get a tree topper to sit on an artificial tree? Every year I have to MacGyver the topper to the tree.  I have a growing collection of tree toppers because I keep searching for the one that will sit properly, be in proper proportion to the tree and not be too heavy for the poor little branch at the top!)

…oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree…

I’m so happy with how the tree looks. It’s brilliant.  I’m totally smitten on this new style of artificial Christmas tree.  I’m totally going to replace our larger tree next year with a larger Balsam Hill artificial Christmas tree.  (I got my eye on one of these…)

So you want to see how our Target tree scrubbed up…

You’ll just have to come back later in the week to see that!

This post was sponsored by Balsam Hill. Opinions are my own and are an honest representation of my experience with this product.