Bill Quinn: Hello! I am Bill Quinn with Christmastreeforme. We are talking about how to
select the perfect artificial Christmas tree for your home. Now we are going to
talk about the differences between a traditionally manufactured artificial
Christmas tree versus a more modern manufactured artificial Christmas tree. The
first thing that you notice is the branch. This branch is constructed by taking a
sheet of plastic and then that plastic is cut or shredded, and then there are two
pieces of wire that are twisted around that plastic, twisted very hard very tight to
create this style of branch. Now that is also called the Bottle-brush technique.
This is the technique that's been used for a long time since I was a little boy, this
was a manufacturing technique that was used, and this manufacturing technique is
still used today. It is a very popular; it is the most popular technique.
Now, this tree is going to have a more molded look. This branch is created using a
mold where they take the mold and they do what's called an injection, they are
injecting the plastic into the mold in order to create the branch. The big difference
is as you can see this branch has much more body, it's more of a 3-D, it actually
creates the closeness, you actually see individual needles as oppose to this while
you can see individual needles they are flat, more of a 2-D style and they are
squish able and bendable and this manufacturing technique is still used today, and
it is very, very popular. Which of these techniques is going to be perfect for you?
It's really a matter of an opinion. If you have owned artificial Christmas trees
before maybe you have owned an artificial Christmas tree for the last 5, 10, 15
years, you are going to be more used to this style of branch.
You are going to be -- your ornaments, the way that you decorate the tree this is
going to be the technique that you will typically gravitate towards. If you are
someone that has maybe you only have had one artificial tree or maybe this is the
first artificial tree you have ever owned then this style of branch is going to be the
superior choice for you. Simply being this tree looks more realistic. This tree
when you look at it, if you look at it from couple of steps back you really -- it
takes a while for your eyes to adjust to understand that this is an artificial branch.
Now notice, this tree does have the traditional style branch back in the tree. Now,
these were the more of the 2-D needles. The reason why is to create the depth of
the tree, to create the density of the tree, so the center pole is not so obvious. This
style of branch does a better job of covering up those holes. The other pieces that
if you built the tree entirely out of this style of branch while creating the density
and the depth using this style of branch all the way through, that tree is going to
be very expensive.
There are a few trees out there that are made with all only these realistic tips, but
those tend to be more sparse and they tend to be more expensive. As far as
ornamentation is concerned, this style of branch is going to be a little bit more
advantageous for doing heavy, heavy ornaments. I don't mean heavy in weight, I
mean putting lots of ornaments on the tree. The reason why is because this is
going to have a little bit more flexibility, you can bend it all the way back if you
just wanted to get it out of the way, you could bend it all the way back on itself.
Now on this tree you can't bend this branch the same way. But you can't bend it
all the way back; if you bend it all the way it would unnatural. You are not going
to be able to hide certain branch tips by bending it back.
Another point that I would like to make is some of the realistic trees have what we
call floppy tips. That means that the -- as the mold comes out there is no metal
inside of it. And so if you try the hand an ornament it would flop down. This
particular tree what I believe is important is finding the trees that have the wire in
the branch that go all the way to the tip. So you can literally, if you need to, you
can bend the branch right at the very tip and not have to worry about it. Next,
when you are choosing the two different styles of trees remember this is more of a
traditional tree. It's going to have the traditional lights set it which is if one bulb
burns out, the rest stay lit, which means if this one bulb burns out, there is not
going to be any other bulbs go out.
However, if this bulb is removed from the string or it's broken, it's cracked or it
shorted out you are going to have an entire band of lights that are going to go out.
Now the more modern tree is going to use what is called a -- it's going to have an
advance socket where if one bulb burns out the rest stay on but you can also pull
the bulb out and the light stay on, if it is cracked, broken etcetera. Now I put this
back in and back over here we have the traditional manufacturing technique,
along with a spiny needle, you can see how thin that needle is and then also we
have the spiny needle with a little bit of bloom on the end, the great line adds an
additional kind of a rustic look and then also we have the pine cones.
This tree is going to be good obviously in a country style home or log cabin style
home etcetera. It's not going to require quite as much ornamentation as a tree such
as this that doesn't have any of the options. So with that, we have talked about,
comparing the more advanced Christmas tree with the molded branch tip and the
advanced lighting compared to a tree that has the traditional style branches and lot
of the options. It really boils down to your personal preferences, what you want to
have in your home. So, we have kind of summarized the differences between the
two. Next we going to talk about and demonstrate how we set this tree up.