A pre-lit Christmas tree saves a whole lot of time when it comes to setup, and it allows you to get straight to the decorations (they’re also more resilient around pets and kids). Today’s LED light options are more durable than ever, and the latest trees even allow for smarter operation through mobile apps and other tools. We’ve rounded up our favorite smart trees with a variety of options for different styles and preferences.
Note: When it comes to fake, pre-lit Christmas trees, the branches are typically made of PVC, so the tree “species” doesn’t mean much, but the species can be an indicator of how the branches will look, so it does serve a purpose here. Also, if you want shaping to go faster, grab some rubber gloves before you begin.
Evergreen Classics Twinkly 7.5-foot Aspen Pine
Twinkly is a specialist in smart holiday lighting, so it’s good news that they have added their tech to this high-quality Evergreen Classics 7.5-foot tree. If you prefer more realistic trees, you’ll love the way these branches mimic an authentic spruce, ideal for placing decorations and durable enough to withstand more public areas — it also comes with an updated design made to avoid manual shaping whenever possible, cutting down greatly on setup time for the 2,541 branch tips.
But onto the lights themselves: This tree comes with 390 RGB LED lights, which means you can change them to whatever colors and patterns you prefer. You can control everything through the Twinkly app, creating a schedule and customizing colors until things are just right. It’s an excellent starting place if you’re interested in a smart Christmas tree.
Home Decorator’s Collection 7.5-foot Twinkly Rainbow Black Spruce
Do you like Christmas tree lights — really like them? Then you might not be content with a tree that has fewer lights when you can always get one that has more. That brings us to this 7.5-foot model, which sports an amazing 600 Twinkly RGB LED lights. It’s perfect if you like a tree that can really light up a room and dazzle with a personalized display (again supported through Twinkly’s highly capable app).
The tree has more than 3,400 evergreen tips and comes with a folding metal stand for support so you have everything you need out of the box. Setup may take a little longer with a tree this complicated, but this bright tree is sure to impress.
Mr. Christmas 9-foot Christmas tree
If you’re looking for some extra height to fill a larger space, this Mr. Christmas tree has your back with a Vermont Spruce design and built-in smart lights. The durable LED lights are RGB models that you can set to any color or color pattern you want, including 40 different light modes. The more than 2,5000 flame retardant branch tips are also relatively easy to arrange, which is important for a tree this size.
The tree is also Alexa compatible. That means you can give it voice commands, like telling Alexa to change the lights to blue or green to match your mood. It also makes it easy to sync the tree up with Alexa routines that manage other smart devices, like turning the tree on and playing Christmas music simultaneously.
Balsam Hill 6-foot Pre-lit Christmas tree
This smart tree is a combination of Blue Spruce design and Twinkly’s smart LED lights — a great mix of quality and all the smart lighting features you want. The PVC needles and 886 branches are durable and well-spaced to take advantage of the lights, which can be programmed for any color and a variety of different scheduling options. You’re also set with a protective glove for arranging the branches, extra bulbs, and fuses, and a bag to store the tree in during the off-season!
Evergreen Classics 7.5-foot Washington Spruce
Not everyone wants to mess around with an app when controlling their Christmas tree lights. This Every Classics model is very similar to our first pick, but instead of relying on an app, you get a separate remote control that you can use to set colors for the 400 LED lights that come with 10 different motion effects to experiment with. This tree is also very easy to set up with pre-wired sections and no extra plugs.
