The whole Christmas holidays traditionally lasts for less than 4 weeks. Once Christmas is over, its time to pack up. Properly storing your pre-lit Christmas tree is an essential part of keeping it fresh and good-looking for a more extended period. When not correctly stored, artificial trees and their decorations can become damaged. This can be quite frustrating, especially because you would have to get a new one for the next holiday.

Here, you would find 6 best practices to ensure that your pre-lit Christmas tree lasts longer:

1. Warranty

Before purchasing an artificial tree, you must ensure that it has a warranty. A tree’s warranty says much about its material quality and expected usage span. While some companies short term warranty of 3 to 5 years, we advise that you go for trees with a much more extended warranty of 7 to 10 years.

2. Scan for burnouts

For pre-lit Christmas trees, you must conduct a quick scan of the lights and decorations. Once you find some burnouts, you can easily replace them before the next holiday. Also, trees with LED lights tend to last longer as they have a lower risk of burning out.

3. Dismantle

Most artificial trees come in 3 different parts. Do not store your tree stacked up. Take it down by dissembling it from the top to the bottom. Carefully unplug each section from the other to avoid damages.

After dismantling, fold in the branches of your tree carefully and slowly.

4. Do not store it in a box!

Many people make the mistake of storing their artificial trees back in the box it came in. Since the tree would be staying in there for 11 months and a few weeks, you might want to consider a safer option; like a storage bag.

5. Great storage location

Store your tree in a cool, dry, and clean environment. Avoid storing in environments that are prone to pests, sunlight, moisture, and unregulated temperature. A dry basement or a closet would do just fine.

Finally, avoid stacking things on your tree. With these, your pre-lit Christmas tree should last much longer than envisaged.

Follow along with our blog here.

Everything gets dirty, despite our best intentions, many times our artificial Christmas trees are one of those items that get dirty from year to year. Most people are surprised at just how dirty these trees can get since they are usually in a bag or the original box in which they arrived in. However, for those who are looking to make sure that their tree looks its best, they may have to take some time to clean this before decorating it.

There are 3 methods that people use to clean their tree and we are going to take a look at each and every one of these. 

1. Using a vacuum to get the dust and debris off of their tree limbs. With this method, they often use the hand tools that come with their vacuum to get the dust and debris off of the tree and the tree looking great. This is an option for those who have a less powerful vacuum. But, they will find that a super powerful vacuum could damage the tree. A small handheld dustbuster is a great option when cleaning this way.
2. They sit this tree outside on their patio or porch and let mother nature take care of the dust. They often do this when it is a bright and sunny day with a breeze that was blowing. The wind can remove the dirt and dust and then they can bring this inside to enjoy. This is an option, but remember, if the wind is too strong, this could end up damaging your tree if it were to blow over and hit something else. 
3. The other option is to use a feather duster or a dust sheet to remove the dust. You gently wipe the branches down and the dust is going to attach to the product you are using. This may be a bit more time consuming as you are going to have to wipe down each branch, but in the long run, it could be much safer for your tree as you are going to avoid doing it damage. 

For those who need to do a little light cleaning on their artificial Christmas tree, know that this is something that should be pretty easy and not require a deep cleaning, as long as you have stored this properly while it wasn’t in use. The method you use should be the one that is best for your artificial Christmas tree.

Follow along with Holiday Christmas here