I’m dreaming of a white Christmas…tree
Submitted by Sarah D. Bunting on November 24, 2008 – 9:19 PM42 Comments
Can anyone recommend an inexpensive artificial Christmas tree? (…”Winter-holiday arboreal cluster,” whatever you like.) The faker and more space-age ’50s Christmas-looking, the better, and if you can attest to its relative pet-safety (i.e. if a certain orange pet tries to snack on a low-hanging branch, will that kill him or what).
Thanks!
Share!
Tags: fake Christmas trees retail
Check out Target’s website. I can’t attest to fuzzy-orange-terror-safety, but they appear to have everything else covered.
Be careful with the cats. I think artificial are better than the real event.
Wal-Mart has these for sale online:
http://tiny.cc/TpdCN
Only 4′ and pre-lit! Check out that lovely silvery white hue. The price is right, too. They also sell a bubble gum pink one, an electric blue one, and a purple one, but not online, apparently. Not sure about the pet-safety aspect.
Target has this one, slightly larger and slightly more expensive:
http://tiny.cc/qipmh
Okay, must get back to work now.
Urban Outfitters has a pretty good selection. Page through their holiday stuff and you’ll find ones in gold, pink, and white. They also have the Charlie Brown tree, which I kind of love.
Last year I bought a white Martha Stewart tree at K-Mart on Black Friday morning totally cheap. Can’t go wrong with Martha!
I did see a few white strands in the litter, but it didn’t seem to hurt them. :)
I have found with my guys that the stiffness factor is the key to their not being interested. If the branch doesn’t sway enticingly when they bat at it, they lose interest pretty quickly. So keep that in mind when making your selection.
I recommend shopping in your Dad’s basement for your childhood tree that your Dad no longer uses so you can give it a second life at your new house. Price: Free, except for the Febreeze to freshen it up a bit. Oh wait, that’s probably not very verstile. Do you have any Joann Fabrics or Hobby Lobbys nearby? They usually have artifical trees and either have them on sale already or have online coupons for 40% off.
Walmart – silver and $139!
http://tinyurl.com/walmarttree
I usually string bells along the bottom branches of my tree– they’re a good alarm system, because when I hear a jingle, I know when one of my cats is being evil. And as a bonus, it freaks them out.
I don’t know if there are Dollar Store/Dollar Generals where you live, but that’s where I got my fake tree. It was maybe $10. I have two cats who aren’t remotely interested in it, unlike the real tree I had before.
Or you could splurge and get a rotating tree. Just add cat and hilarity ensues! Seriously, my parent’s cat can spend hours just laying there and batting at ornaments as they pass by.
(But seriously, even though I hate shopping there, Wal*Mart is the place to go for cheap x-mas trees.)
I just bought this cutie-patootie at Target for $9.99. And it’s pre-lit!
http://tinyurl.com/6m6pt3
Silver tinsel, super-mini – just about perfect!
I’m allergic to most live trees, so we’ve always had fake (and we’ve always had cats) and it really just depends on the cat. If they are a chewer – as The Dude is – they’ll chew on it. If they’re not, they won’t. The Dude will chew on anything that might even remotely be related to curling ribbon… his drug of choice. So, he’s basically nude-ified the tips of all of the lower branches of my mom’s fake tree. And, he’s really no worse for the wear.
The best thing we’ve found, is to sprinkle pepper on the bottom branches – and usually by Christmas day – on the packages themselves as well.
P.S. My mom can no longer put bows or ribbons on the Christmas gifts at her house.
P.P.S. The Dude is my cat, who now lives with my parents, because I’m allgeric to real trees and my SO is allergic to The Dude. Sigh
@Sam- See, we have the complete opposite problem in our house. We tried the artificial tree, we now cannot use the artificial tree. Ours was really cheap and the cats figured out that they could actually TAKE THE LOWER BRANCHES OFF THE TREE. Not to mention the snacking attempts that led to the eventual dismantling of said tree.
The real tree, on the other hand, doesn’t interest them as much. My Freya climbed one the day before we took it down, and they do try to take the lights down, but that’s it. We just put the non-breaky, no-edible things on the bottom.
Tree skirts are an exercise in futility, just FYI.
Abra Cat is a genius.
I have plain plastic silver balls on the bottom branches. The cats see thier warped reflection & recoil & then smack the ornament across the room. It’s funny, but bells would be a lot less trouble.
The cats do climb the tree, but with all the ornament wires wrapped around the branch a couple of times I haven’t had much trouble. I also have a guy-wire from the middle of the tree to a hook in the wall so they can’t knock it over.
The tree itself is from JCPenney, and was inexpensive & pre-lit to a blinding degree…so many lights! They don’t chew the branches at all.
Seconding the bells-on-the-bottom-branches. It’s worked for me and my distinguished tuxedo boy for the past 16 years.
And here’s a white half-tree (to go against the wall) at JCP for under $80.
http://tinyurl.com/5k3jvd
I got a table top size pink tinsel tree with lights last year at Michael’s. I can’t attest to kitty-safety as I don’t have any, but I think they had larger ones too.
Two Years ago I bought a 5′ white LED tree from this company…
https://www.artificial-christmas-tree.com/a2z/shop/index.php/page/shop/flypage/product_sku/ILG60_905_White05
I have 4 cats, one who likes to gnaw on the low branches and its perfectly save. I can leave the tree on ALL DAY and not worry about wasting electricity or burning down my house. I really love this tree and my only wish is that I bought the bigger one. Next time…
@Abra Cat: Have you considered this jingle bell tree? http://tinyurl.com/6da4xq
If you get a white tree, I would get one that is white vinyl, not green with white flocking. My mom’s cat mouthed her new fake (green) tree the year or two and was non-worse for the wear. Don’t know if he actually ingested any of the “needles.” Perhaps a bitter spray on the bottom row of branches to discourage chewing? Of course, my bunnies think the bitter apple spray is tasty and will lick what you spray. Most worthless $6 that I ever spent.
How about this one from the link at the top of the page? http://www.christmastreesgalore.com/christmas-trees/prelit-christmas-trees/prelitclearlight65footwhiteslenderpinechristmastree.cfm
I’ve always gotten my fake trees at Sears. They have a 4.5′ pre-lit white tree for $90: http://tinyurl.com/65nwcd
Though it’s wicked expensive, they also have a silver bubble tree that you can fill the center with water for “fun bubbles.” http://tinyurl.com/563j4m
Try Goodwill/Salvation Army/thrift stores. I was just at Goodwill they other day and they had three 2ft. high trees (think Charlie Brown trees, but made with fuchsia or silver tinsel) for 99 cents each, and then a 5ft high silver tinsel one for $10.
Target.com shows a 4′ silver tinsel tree for $20, but it’s only available in-store.
It’s not inexpensive, but I have this tree from Target: http://tinyurl.com/6b2ojt
So far, it has been resistant to three cats (one of whom is a 3-month old kitten who likes to nest in the middle branches, like he’s some kind of fat, orange ornament) and one very spazzy dog. It’s been up for two weeks and hasn’t so much as wobbled, once I figured out how the hell to put it together.
My cats tend to eat garbage without my knowledge, try as I might to stop them, but they leave my tree alone except for the small orb ornaments. You might try getting some of that spray from PetSmart or wherever (such as http://tinyurl.com/6pjo89) that makes stuff taste bad to cats if they chew on it and spray that around the bottom edges of the tree.
This whole thread is just so funny to me – here we are, rational adults, discussing the merits of real/fake Christmas trees and their affect on feline house pets.
Comedy GOLD, right here.
I don’t do trees for Christmas, but my parents always just did a fake pre-lit one, with no ornaments on about the lower third of said tree…but I think that had more to do with labrador tails than cat paws.
I second (or 5th or whatever) the bells on the bottom of the tree, but I also space them throughout the tree as my little black beast like to hurl himself through the air rather than climb like a normal cat. I also use ribbon to hang my ornaments instead of the hooks because I’m afraid of my own orange beast ingesting the hooks. I also don’t use tinsel or garland, just wide pretty ribbons.
I got my tree from KMart, it’s a Martha Stewart pre-lit tree with a more slender appearance. The branches are very sturdy so the cats haven’t really had much of a desire to play with it because it doesn’t wobble when they bat at it.
it must be all up to the cat’s preference. we’ve had real and fake trees, and none of the cats ever cared.
however. one cat insists she sleep in the nativity scene. to protect the baby jesus? who knows…. but she now has 2 options, and will sleep in both
Some funky ones in here:
http://www.artificialxmastreesonline.com/redchristmastrees.htm
So funny that this came up… I was doing some spring cleaning today (…I know) and some dusty boxes, just for a fleeting moment, smelled exactly like our old fake Christmas tree did when we got it down from the rafters each year. I was allergic to the real ones, so the Scotch Pine and its funky aroma was like an old friend. Wish I could send you a link to that classic… it was new in the late 60s and definitely had some period schmaltz going on. Learning how to put it together properly was a late-childhood rite of passage for me!
Can’t advise you on the cat dilemma… Our cat was confined to the Great Outdoors, so we never had a conflict there.
My cats messed with real trees mostly just to drink the gakky water. However, icicles on any tree or ribbons on packages were just out of the question — girl cat would eat anything “stringy”. They didn’t seem to have much interested in the fake tree. It is only about 2 1/2 feet tall and, I guess, held no mysteries since they could practically knock it over with one paw tied behind their back. We also had a family tradition of only putting baby/cat/dog safe ornaments at the bottom of the tree.
With no cats left, it has gotten much easier and faster to wrap presents without an 18 pound paperweight lying on the unrolled paper.
Thanks for these suggestions, guys. Hobey is such an inveterate nibbler that I’m not sure I should get any tree ever again until I have more doors to put between him and any prospective tree, but every year I mull it over.
I know it’s meant for the outdoors, but how about something like this:
http://www.amazon.com/4-Ft-LED-Christmas-Cone-Tree/dp/B000JCWKZC?
or http://www.comforthouse.com/ledxmastree.html?
Might such a sleek, vertical tree elicit less gnawing?
If you google “christmas tree made of” you get some pretty weird responses. Trees made of beer cans, made of bears and diamonds, made of MtDew cans, made of televisions, of cookies, of money, stars, potatoes…but alas, none made of kibble.
(PS – when using Google as a verb, should it be capitalized?)
@MinCO: I think so, yes. Also — kibble tree! Or better yet: nip tree! That would get messy and scary, and yet so very funny.
Sars… how about a tomato cage Christmas tree?
Dollar General has a 5′ white tree for $20. Being broke, I thought at least I would have a humorously ugly tree if nothing else. I was only a little disappointed that it turned out to be a damn good looking tree. DG also sells plastic versions of 50’s glass ornaments for $5 a bucket (10-15 ornaments each). Two buckets of those on the white tree makes for a weirdly beautiful but patently fake effect.
Bonus; the two cats that have destroyed every tree I’ve ever had, mostly from climbing them, are supremely indifferent to this one. I assume it looks so surreal they refuse to acknowledge it exists.
I get all my fake tacky trees at Borders. Cheap and dirty fun.
Well, did you find one or did you nix the idea?
Temporary nix; I really think Hobey would eat a fake one, more than he would a real one (he loves him some plastic). But I’m continuing to research.