Well the stores are just starting to put away their back-to-school
inventory so I guess that means that Christmas Season is upon us. This
is a great time to start planning a tree purchase. After spending last
year watering a live tree and picking up needles it’s time to invest in a
quality artificial tree. Like all of us these days, you like the ease
and convenience of buying on-line. But buying a Christmas tree this way
seems like a daunting task. Here are some tips to make a smooth
purchase.

First job is size. If you have bought live trees for
your house this should be pretty easy. If you have not it’s not so hard.
Most people buy a 6′ or 7′ tree. If you have an 8′ ceiling, you can
buy a 7′ tree and still put a topper on it. A lot of people like 6′
trees because they can reach the entire tree without a stool for
decorating. In a small space, a 5′ tree will still look full sized but
will take up less space. If you are really cramped, consider a Slim
tree.

There are times when you may want to consider a smaller
tree. Tabletop trees are very popular for offices, empty nesters and
apartments. They don’t take up a lot of room but still bring the
Christmas spirit into the house. They are also pretty easy to store. It
is not unheard of for people to store their tabletop trees fully
decorated.

Shape is important. Most artificial Christmas Trees
have a standard shape. Generally a 7′ tree will have a width of about
42″ to 48″. There are wide base trees and there are slim trees. These
can be used to fill a space more precisely, but keep in mind Artificial
Christmas Trees are very shapeable. If you need to, you can bend
branches to fill a space and or leave a row off to fit large presents
under a tree. Often we will put up our tree entirely and pull a row of
branches off as they fill up.

Quality is the key. If you are
trying to figure out the differences between trees of the same size and
shape, the answer is usually in the fullness. As trees get more
branches and needles they get more expensive. Mass merchant trees
usually are very sparse looking because they have low needle and branch
counts. Online seller typically give you these counts in number of
tips. In a mass merchant tree a 6-7′ tree will have 400-500 tips. A
medium quality tree will have 1000-1400 tips. A premium quality tree
will have over 2000 tips. Please notes, slim trees will have
approximately 1/3 less tips because of their narrow profile.

Hi Husni – thanks very much for your comments. Did you see the 3 thumbnails within the article, they are screen grabs showing examples for IBM, Basecamp and TED. Do these help at all?

Other examples: Someone like Kelkoo.com are very literal: “Find. Compare. Save.” Whereas Autotrader.co.uk delivers through clear navigation options (New/Used, Cars/Caravans/Bikes), one of my points is the OVP is not necessarily a strap-line. Interestingly eBay build their’s into the page title: “The UK’s Online Marketplace”, where it used to be as a strap-line, maybe they don’t need to say it anymore?

Does this help? Let me know your thoughts.

Husni