What are Pre-lit Christmas Trees?
Artificial Christmas trees are pine or fir trees that are manufactured for the purpose of being used as Christmas trees. Artificial Christmas trees were first developed by the Germans and were made from wooden objects that resembled a tree or a feather. Although most modern Christmas trees are made from polyvinyl chloride (PVC), many other types of Christmas trees have been and are available, including prelit trees.
How Do Pre-lit Christmas Trees Work?
Due to the added ease of not having to string one’s own lights, prelit trees have been growing in popularity in the United States and Germany as well. Among the most popular types of lights today are incandescent lights (also called mini lights), as well as LED lights (where each bulb has an individual socket, protecting the entire string if one bulb burns out). Prelit trees are subject to the safety standards for electrical devices and must meet safety standards approved by national testing laboratories such as UL (Underwriters Labs), CSA (Canadian Standards Association), ETL (Intertek), GS, BS and RoHS. The trees are designed for outdoor use with UV additives and may be frosted or glittered. You can buy plastic trees in a variety of colors, and one type has speakers and an MP3 player built in.
Several brands of PVC trees have marketed trees resembling Douglas fir, Ponderosa pine and other types of common Christmas trees, such as Mountain King, Barcana, and the National Tree Company. Aside from trees looking more real, some of them also smelled real during the 1990s. Most modern models include pre-strung lights and hinged branches that require only snapping into place. More recently, companies like Balsam Hill have developed artificial Christmas trees molded from (PE) plastic that resemble natural tree branches. These trees make more sales today than ever before.