If you haven’t started decorating yet because you need more holiday decor, good news: we found the best Black Friday Christmas tree deals and smart light sales.
Whether you need a whole new tree covered in artificial snow, or smart lights you can have automatically turn on (because an automated holiday is a happy one, trust me!) these sales have you covered from all of the best holiday gear we’ve tried. That includes permanent outdoor lights from the likes of Eufy and Lepro, smart string lights from Twinkly, and best of all a range of on-sale artificial Christmas trees we tested with interior designers from brands like Basalm Hill, King of Christmas, and more.
Don’t miss these great Black Friday Christmas tree deals (and light deals, too!) while they’re happening. Don’t miss our guides to the best Black Friday deals or our Black Friday liveblog, either. Happy decorating!
Best Artificial Tree Deals
Our favorite overall artificial Christmas tree was the easy favorite of the interior designers who helped us test and review them. One assembler called it “the Hermès of Christmas trees” and it had both a beautiful look to the evergreen branches and bright built-in LED lights. The branches are easy to hang ornaments on thanks to the slight upward slope, and a mix of needle types give it a great texture. It’s a great investment tree that’s on sale.
Flocked trees are covered in artificial snow to give it that extra Christmas-y look, and our favorite flocked design is this tree from King of Christmas. Out of the trees we tested, this tree really nailed the fresh snow look, which is hard to do artificially. The branches are nice and thick, but it is a little harder to hang ornaments around the flocking.
Out of all the trees we tested, not only is this the cheapest one we liked, but it was rated easiest artificial Christmas tree to fluff thanks to its pliable branches. The easy fluff makes it look much fuller and more natural than trees that aren’t easy to do that with, and makes this cheaper tree look high end. There’s a wrapped pole in the middle that adds to the realistic look.
Best Smart Lights Deals
These lights are the star of my garage this holiday season and one of my favorite sets I’ve tested for my smart Christmas lights guide. After sitting in storage for a year, these lights easily reconnected to my app and Wi-Fi with no problem, and it was easy to take a quick photo with the app to re-map the lights with my current setup. I love the range of designs you can find or create in the Twinkly app, and it was easy to set a timer so that they’ll turn on and off at the right time.
These are my all-around best pick for smart Christmas lights. You can put them on your house, your walls, your tree, your balcony railing, whatever you like! Then use the app and your camera to map the lights and start creating the designs you want for it. Like the Strings above, there’s plenty of designs you can choose from or create in the app, and easy controls all around.
Best Permanent Outdoor Lights Deals
We’ve been testing tons of outdoor permanent lights this holiday season, and this set from Eufy is one of the standouts. WIRED reviewer Kat Merck found the app easy to navigate for choosing colors and schedules for her lights, and loved the wide offering of holiday presets to take advantage of. There’s an AI feature to make customized light shows, and the Eufy S4 lights work with the Matter protocol, so it can sync with Apple, Google, and Alexa’s smart home ecosystems.
If the sales aren’t getting the permanent outdoor lights cheap enough for you, then you’ll be thrilled to see our budget set is on sale for a similar price you’d get regular smart lights for. WIRED reviewer Martin Cizmar is happy with these lights on his home, but he does warn that there’s annoying in-app AI you have to get around to get access to regular controls. Once you click past it, these lights are easy to control and customize like you would any set of smart lights.
Keep an eye on the model and waterproofing; while the 150-foot version has an IP65 rating for the lights and an IP67 for the power adapter, the 50-foot and 100-foot models have an IP65 rating for the light kits but no weatherproofing for the power adapter, so it needs to be in an enclosed outlet. If you’re using an outdoor outlet with no protection from the weather, then upgrade to the 150-foot size.
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