Hykolity 7.5 ft Prelit Christmas Tree Review

For 21 years I strung the lights myself. Every November I dragged the old 7 foot artificial tree up from the basement, wrapped strand after strand around the branches, plugged in the first cord and found half the string dead, then spent another hour chasing the bad bulb. By the time the tree was lit I was out of patience and out of holiday spirit. Three Novembers ago we bought the hykolity 7.5 ft prelit tree. This coming Christmas is its fourth season in the front window of our two story brick house in Zanesville, and I have not strung a single light since.

I am 62, retired from the front office of an elementary school, and I decorate this house myself. Gary, my husband, carries the heavy boxes up the basement stairs and that is the extent of his help. I say that so you know this review comes from one woman with a normal living room, a normal budget and no desire to spend a Saturday on a ladder. The hykolity tree had to earn its spot, and it has. It is also not perfect, and I will get to that.

How I've Used It

We bought it three Novembers ago. Before that we had a bare 7 foot artificial tree from the year we moved in, and every season I wound lights through it by hand. Untangling and restringing took a full afternoon. The first year with the hykolity, Gary carried the box up and I had the tree standing in about 20 minutes. That number is not a guess. I looked at the clock because I did not believe it.

The tree comes apart into hinged sections. You set the metal stand on the floor, drop the bottom section into it, stack the rest, and let the branches fall. Then you plug it in. That is the whole assembly. The part that takes time is fluffing. I spend about 40 minutes pulling the branches apart and shaping them, and I do that alone while the radio is on. If you skip it, the tree looks thin in the middle. If you do it, it looks like the tree in the window.

The first November we had it, I set the tree up on a Saturday morning while Gary was at the hardware store for furnace filters. I had the sections stacked, the stand tightened and the cord in the outlet before he got back. He stood in the living room doorway with his coat still on and asked me who I had hired to do it. That was the whole test, really. Twenty-one years of me being cross by noon, and that year I was done before lunch.

It stands in the living room front window, which is the only place I have ever put a tree. There is one outlet behind it. I plug the tree into that outlet and the lights come on. No extension cord across the rug, no power strip taped to the base, no cord running to the kitchen. That one detail changed how the room feels at night. The tree is the only lit thing in that window, and from the porch it looks like the house is waiting for Christmas.

What 1,450 Tips Look Like in a Living Room

The tree is 90 inches tall and 54 inches wide. In our living room that means it fills the window from the sill to the top of the glass without blocking the view of the porch. The 1,450 tips are the reason it looks full. My old tree had far fewer branches, and you could see the center pole through it even after I fussed with it. This one has enough tips that the light bounces around inside the branches instead of shining straight through.

Full does not mean automatic. The first year I fluffed it in a hurry and left a few gaps on the side that faces the stairs. Nobody who came to the door noticed, but I did. The next year I took the 40 minutes and the difference was real. You have to pull the inner branches out first, then the outer ones, and work from the bottom up. The tips are flexible, so you can shape the tree instead of fighting it. That is also why it survives the box. Nothing has bent out of place in three pack-aways.

Here is how it sits in the room, since that is the part nobody tells you. Our window sill is about knee high and the glass runs up near the ceiling, and the tree top lands right at the upper edge of the glass. The 54 inch spread reaches from the window trim to just short of the curtain rod on the left side. I measured before we bought it with a tape from Gary's toolbox, because I did not want to order something that would not fit the one window I had. Measure yours. Fifty-four inches is wider than it sounds when you are standing in front of a window with a couch behind you.

Up close, you can see the stems and the wire. It is an artificial tree, and it does not pretend to be a forest. From the couch it looks warm and full. From the street it looks like a tree in a window. From six inches away you will see the PVC. I do not think that is a flaw at this size. I think it is what you get unless you want a different kind of tree, and I would rather have the fullness where people actually stand.

The Lights: 450 Warm White LEDs

The tree has 450 warm white LEDs. Warm white is the color of a lamp in the corner, not the blue white of a hospital hallway. That matters to me. I have walked past houses where the tree looks cold from the sidewalk, and I did not want that in my front window. These lights make the living room look like it is lit by candles, even though the only candles in the room are on the mantel.

450 lights on a 7.5 foot tree is enough. I can see the glow from the porch, and the light reaches the inner branches instead of just sitting on the outside. I have not had to replace a bulb in three seasons. I plug the tree in, and the lights come on. That is the entire ritual. After years of chasing a dead strand, I do not take that for granted.

The week after Thanksgiving two years ago I turned off the lamp in the corner and sat on the couch with nothing on in the room except the tree. Gary came in from the kitchen and did not turn the overhead light on, which for him is unusual. We sat there for maybe twenty minutes with the tree lit and the porch light off. That is the thing I was trying to buy all those years I was untangling strands, and I did not know it until it happened.

The listing says the tree is flame resistant and the material is PVC. I am not going to pretend I tested that. I can tell you the tree has never felt hot, and I have never smelled anything from the lights. I keep it plugged into the wall behind the tree and I unplug it when we go to bed. That is the same thing I did with the old tree. The difference is that now I am not also checking a tangle of strands I wound myself.

The Stand, the Box and the Basement Stairs

The metal stand is included. It is not a decorative skirt, and it is not one of those thin wire jobs that lets the tree lean. Gary sets the base on the floor, I hold the bottom section, and we tighten it. The tree has stayed upright through three seasons, including the year the grandchildren came through the living room at a run. I have never had to tighten it again in January. The stand is the reason I am willing to put a 7.5 foot tree in a window.

The tree goes back in the box it came in. That box lives on a shelf in our unfinished basement, next to the ornament box and the bins. It is not a small box, and it is not light. Gary carries it up and down the stairs because I am not going to pretend I can manage it on a step ladder. If you are on your own, measure your storage space before you buy. A tree this size needs a shelf with height and a clear path to the stairs.

Our basement shelves are the plain metal kind, four tiers, bolted to the wall. The tree box takes an entire tier by itself and there is not much daylight between it and the joist above. I have to slide it in flat and I cannot stack anything on top of it. Before we had the shelves I kept the old tree standing in a corner down there with a sheet over it, and it collected dust and one spider web every year. The box is worth the shelf space. Just count your tiers before you assume it will tuck away.

I pack it away the first weekend of January, the same weekend everything else comes down. The branches fold back toward the center, the sections stack, and the lights stay on the tree. I do not take the lights off. That is the whole point. The box is not pretty, but it is doing the job. The tree has come out of it three times without a broken branch or a dark section.

What I'd Change

The fluffing is the tradeoff. Forty minutes is not nothing, and it is 40 minutes of standing and reaching, not sitting with a cup of coffee. If your shoulders are not what they used to be, do it in two sittings. I have done that. The tree does not care. The first year I tried to rush it and the tree looked like it had a bald spot. The second year I slowed down and it looked like the photo on the box.

The other thing is the look up close. This is a full tree, not a dense designer tree. If you want something that looks like a display in a department store window, you will spend more and you will get a heavier tree. I wanted a tree that fills my window and does not need a strand of lights added. The hykolity does that. It just does not pretend to be something else.

I would also tell you to have help on the stairs. The box is awkward more than anything. Gary carries it because he is there and because he is stronger than I am, but a neighbor could do it. Do not try to carry it up a flight of stairs by yourself if you are not steady on your feet. That is not a knock on the tree. That is just sense.

Twenty minutes to stand it up. Forty minutes to fluff it. No afternoons lost to tangled lights. That is the trade this tree offers, and I have made it three Christmases running.

Who This Is For

This is for the woman who decorates her own house and wants the living room to feel warm without a storage room full of separate light strands. You have a front window, a normal budget and a helper for the heavy box. You are willing to spend 40 minutes shaping branches because you know that is what makes an artificial tree look like something. You are not trying to impress a magazine. You are trying to make the house feel like Christmas when your grown children come home.

It is also for a two story home with a living room, a dining room or an entryway that can take a 7.5 foot tree. The hykolity is 54 inches wide, so it needs a real corner or window, not a narrow slot. If you have that space and one outlet nearby, the setup is as simple as this kind of tree gets. I have decorated this house for 24 years, and this is the first tree that did not make me dread the lights.

Who Should Skip It

Skip it if you want a tree that looks perfect the minute it comes out of the box. It does not. It needs fluffing, and the inner branches need attention or you will see gaps. Skip it if you cannot manage a large box on stairs or 40 minutes of reaching over your head. A smaller tree or a different setup would serve you better. There is no shame in knowing what your shoulders and your storage space can handle.

Skip it if you want a dense showroom tree that hides every stem at arm's length. This one shows its wire up close. Skip it if you need a slim tree, because 54 inches is not slim. And skip it if you want the lights to be anything other than warm white. The hykolity does one look, and it does that look well. If that is not the look you want, keep looking.