Updated on Apr. 04, 2025
Two of the holiday season's superstars, Balsam Hill and Twinkly, teamed up to create a smart Christmas tree that left us wonderstruck.
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I grew up in Northern California, where conifers are plentiful and real Christmas trees are the norm. Each year, sipping on hot cocoa, dead-set on heading home with what we deemed the best tree, we’d wander the rows of a local tree lot or lose ourselves in the expanse of a nearby tree farm.
It wasn’t until I moved out of state and into my own apartment that I realized the merit—and even the necessity—of artificial Christmas trees. Although I still love going to my parents’ West Coast home for Christmas and smelling authentic pine needles as soon as I step in the door, I proudly rock a fake Christmas tree (alongside pine-scented wintry candles) in my duplex.
Thankfully, faux Christmas trees have come a long way since the scratchy, lopsided fake trees of yore.
“Many now feature molded PE (polyethylene) tips designed to mimic real evergreen needles, giving the tree depth and authenticity,” explains Hannah Bartlett, Christmas expert, trend researcher and founder of Jolly Festive. “They’re built to handle years of setup and pack-down without losing shape and often come with storage bags and care kits to help keep them looking their best.”
Perhaps none demonstrate this quite as well as the Smart Twinkly Christmas tree from Balsam Hill, which I was lucky enough to assemble, test and admire.
VIA MERCHANT
The Smart Twinkly Christmas Tree, with its special, customizable, remote-controlled lights, lets you decorate and dazzle like never before.
The smart Twinkly Christmas tree is a collaboration between Balsam Hill, one of the leaders for faux Christmas trees, and Twinkly, an Italian-based brand that specializes in smart lighting. It has the perks of all the best Balsam Hill tree offerings, such as true-to-life coloring, natural-looking needles and branches, a metal base and a storage bag. Plus, there’s the fact that it’s adorned with as many as 1,750 Twinkly LED lightbulbs, depending on the height of the tree. We’ll get into the mind-blowing capabilities of these lights (and their accompanying phone application) in the next section.
For the purposes of this review, I tested the Balsam Hill 7.5-foot Fraser Fir, with the Twinkly Light Show Easy Plug option. I’m a fan of full, classic trees, so this was a great fit for me. However, you can purchase a few trees with these showy lights, including the Silverado Slim and the Balsam Fir Narrow Tree.
As for the tangible features, you’ll find three tree sections that click together, as well as a stand, storage bag, fluffing gloves, extra hardware and instructions. It is also dressed with 540 LED Twinkly lights and boasts nearly 3,300 branch tips. Per our measurements, the tree stands exactly 7.5 feet tall and has a diameter of 58 inches. That’s one full tree!
The excitement surrounding this tree primarily lies within the lights. And trust us—there’s no shortage of nifty features. The smart Christmas tree comes with five preset light functions that the included control box turns on. The functions are Rainbow, Snow, “UpDown,” Fireworks and Glow. If you want to get even more festive, though, download the Twinkly app with your smartphone. From there, you can display countless more effects on your tree.
With the fairly user-friendly phone app, there’s the option to stick to more general controls, such as adjusting your lights’ brightness, setting a timer, turning the lights on and off from afar or selecting a specific unchanging color. For fancier functions, explore the gallery, which is divided into categories such as art, ambiance and favorites. Altogether, there are about 60 light effects from which to choose—and that’s before you tap into the FX Wizard tool that allows you to upload or draw your own effects. Plus, the music function lets you sync up a few of the preset functions with surrounding sounds (e.g., Christmas movies, music and, yes, even talking).
Moreover, each of these dozens of preset functions is customizable. Say you select the Candy Cane function, which defaults to red and white stripes that pan across the tree. You can then “edit” the effect by adjusting the speed of the pan as well as the width and colors of the stripes. You also have the option to create a “playlist” of rotating light effects.
We’ve been testing the Balsam Hill Smart Twinkly Christmas tree since October 2023. First, we performed comparison tests in our Milwaukee office, and then I took it home for additional light testing. After that, it reached its final destination with long-term tester Dylan Fischer, who enjoyed it during the 2023 holiday season.
First, we built and toyed around with this tree at Taste Recipes headquarters. With the help of a colleague, I assembled this tree in under five minutes and fluffed it in another 10 minutes or so. A majority of the fluffing took place with the inner branches, as those toward the outside of the tree weren’t very flexible. When all was said and done, the smart Christmas tree looked similar to the listing online: a full, realistic-looking tree with a delightful abundance of lights.
We also measured the tree to confirm that it met the listed height of 7.5 feet (it did!) and decorated it with ornaments of varying weights. This tree held the 1-ounce and 2.5-ounce ornaments securely and without much drooping. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for the 5-ounce ornament. For weightier ornaments, we’d recommend hanging them on the lower branches of the tree and inward toward the trunk.
Our interest was so piqued by the lights, however, that we knew someone needed to take this home for further testing. So, we broke it down and stuffed it in the storage bag—easily, I might add—and I hauled it home. (Check out the Balsam Hill flip tree that our Senior Shopping Editor tested, too.)
I rebuilt the tree by myself in my own space, so I can confirm that assembly is a one-person job for an able-bodied adult. (Note: I did need help carrying the bag up my stairs.) And just a few stray needles needed to be swept up after the fact.
Next, I downloaded the Twinkly app and created an account with my email address. I tried to figure out the app connectivity sans instructions, but after about five minutes, I gave up and turned to the included pamphlet. It seems many users struggle with app-related connectivity, particularly when syncing the tree with Wi-Fi. Issues range from the app losing connection or affecting the stability of the user’s home Wi-Fi network. Nevertheless, no problems with our tests. The setup process entails plugging in the tree, selecting the type of device from the app’s menu, syncing up your tree and the app via Bluetooth and Wi-Fi and then mapping your tree.
Mapping your tree lets you better utilize your lights. Select the number of lights on your tree, then take a static video of the entire tree—base to tip—on the app. This generates a diagram of the tree with markings to indicate where the lights are located. You can redo this as many times as needed. This whole process, including the physical assembly of the tree, took about 20 minutes.
Finally, the fun part! I could’ve played on this phone app until Christmas day, so I’ll just share the highlights. Although I did find the seemingly endless customization options a little overwhelming, there were a few functions I really loved. I don’t care for cool-toned LED lights, so in the general controls tab, I added a default pale yellow color that suited my tastes. I also saved my own effect with this color that I named Warm Shimmer. When selected, the pale yellow lights would twinkle and dance around the tree. As for the presets, my favorites were Glow, Carnival, Plasma and Wednesday Blues.
Oh, and the music function was too much fun. I’m pretty firm about not turning on Christmas tunes until December 1st, but I couldn’t resist cranking “A Very Kacey Christmas” and watching the Rainbow effect go wild during her high notes. The one downside is that the app needs to be open in order for the music function to work.
As much as I loved some of the functions, others were a miss for me. For example, the light effects under the Art category include pop art of Marilyn Monroe and The Birth of Venus painting. However, when I selected these presets, the lights bore no resemblance to their purported inspiration, in my opinion. Perhaps I was being too literal, but I just didn’t see the vision. I’d recommend sticking to the simpler light effects for the best results.
If this tree testing taught me anything, though, it’s that smart Christmas trees and their decor are incredibly subjective, so take all this with a few grains of green and red sanding sugar! There’s certainly something for everyone when it comes to these Twinkly lights.
Psst! If you like the flashy look of this smart Christmas tree, you’ll love this hottest holiday trend: prismatic Christmas decor.
Product Tester Dylan Fischer used the tree in his home during the 2023 holiday season. Overall, he notes that the tree performed phenomenally! He finds it easy to set up since it’s just three pieces that connect to each other. It took about an hour to move branches around to get it to look “full,” which is typically on par with most artificial trees.
“The app is definitely the big game-changer for this tree. Being able to change the colors to whatever you want is so huge—because of this, it could definitely be used as a ‘year-round’ holiday tree with different ornaments,” says Dylan. “There are also a lot of weird animations you can select from the app (like pong, floating hearts, or memes, like the monkey side-eye) that project onto the tree itself. There’s no way you can actually tell what’s being projected on the tree when the patterns are too complicated, but it’s still really cool to see the lights reacting to something like that.”
Ultimately, Dylan settled on some colors he really liked and was able to easily save them as a “Lights Profile” in the app. This makes it much easier to select them later. He enjoyed playing around with multiple different colors over the month he used it.
“Really, really enjoy this tree. As long as the buyer knows they’ll be working out of the phone app to adjust the lights, I can’t see any reason they wouldn’t enjoy this product,” he says.
There aren’t many smart Christmas trees that can compete with those from Balsam Hill. Twinkly sells a few of its own pre-lit faux Christmas trees on Amazon for significantly less money, but I cannot speak to the actual quality of the trees. All that being said, Balsam Hill trees have a reputation that precedes them for a reason.
Of the 7 or 7.5-foot Balsam Hill trees that have the Twinkly Light Show option, the Fraser Fir is the fullest and perhaps the most classic-looking. For that reason, it’s also the most expensive. The Balsam Fir Narrow tree is unsurprisingly more narrow and costs about $100 less than the Fraser Fir. Furthermore, the Silverado Slim, which is also narrow and has more downturned branches, costs $300 less than the Fraser Fir. The light functionality is the same for all three, though, so it’s up to you which one best fits your budget and space.
As for how it compares to other pre-lit trees, well, that goes without saying. Although other worthwhile trees come with a handful of preset light functions, including the Frontgate tree, none have even a fraction of the functions as the Balsam Hill Twinkly trees. If you’re looking to wow, this smart Christmas tree is the way to go.
The tree alone—lights aside—would be worth a purchase, especially if you’re into the fuller look like I am. It’s a gorgeous, true-to-life tree that’s easy to assemble, fluff and store. As for the lights, I was personally a little dubious. As I said, I prefer a soft, warm glow from my Christmas tree lights, one that LED lights don’t excel at producing. However, the Twinkly lights are just so customizable that I was converted. The yellow hue I was able to handpick was perfect, and playing around with the presets and music function was a blast.
Although it’s a sizable investment, I do believe the quality of this tree would lend itself to longevity. It would be a great fit for a family with younger children, a holiday host or hostess or simply anyone who identifies with Danny DeVito’s character from “Deck the Halls.” It might be only 7.5 feet, but this tree is definitely larger than life.
VIA MERCHANT
Adorned with 540 state-of-the-art LED lightbulbs controlled via a phone app, the Smart Twinkly Christmas Tree is an absolute festive must-have.
Balsam Hill has been the place to buy artificial Christmas trees since it was founded in 2006, so it’s no surprise that the company has a corner on the high-tech, hyper-realistic Smart Twinkly Christmas tree, which ranges from $1,599 to $2,249 depending on size (6.5, 7.5 and 9 feet). The choice to splurge on this wow-worthy item is just as smart as the tree itself.
Smart lights are Christmas tree lights that you can control with an app. Many artificial Christmas trees in 2025 come with a bevy of prelit functions, but smart lights allow you to truly customize every inch of your tree. You can change colors, intensity and frequency, plus set up flashing light shows. The options are endless! For this review, we tested Twinkly lights on a Balsam Hill tree.
Yes, artificial trees are durable, reusable, and low-maintenance, making them a convenient and cost-effective holiday choice.
“There’s no denying that artificial trees are a very convenient offer,” says Hannah Bartlett. “They’re ideal for apartments where real trees might not be allowed or for households with pets or allergies with no needle drop or sap to worry about.”
“Plus, you can invest once in the exact size and shape you need, rather than guessing each year if the tree you pick will fit the space.”
Companies like Balsam Hill are known for producing highly realistic, lifelike Christmas trees with detailed branch and needle designs. Of course, these come with a bigger investment up front.
“When it comes to artificial Christmas trees, the age-old saying ‘you get what you pay for’ really applies,” says Hannah Bartlett. “Artificial trees should be seen as an investment: a higher-quality tree typically means better materials, sturdier construction, and hence a longer lifespan, making it better value over time.”
To connect your Twinkly lights, you must first set up your app, which is used to program the lights. Turn on your Bluetooth and secure the Twinkly app. The app will prompt you to choose your controller. For this tree, select the “GENERATION II” option. Press and hold the controller button for five seconds while the app searches for the tree. The LED will turn blue-green to indicate a connection. Confirm the light count and select “configure.” From there, you can customize your lights using the on-screen prompts.
Our Product Testing team is comprised of shopping enthusiasts with a combined decade of experience recommending and testing products. We try out each product in our Product Testing Lab alongside similar options. Operating this way allows us to easily compare products and test them under strictly controlled conditions. Once we finish up our initial testing, top performers are long-term tested by members of the team. This process lets us see how they perform after extended use and in our own homes. Our team has thoroughly tested Balsam Hill gear, including trees, garland, wreaths and ornaments.
For this article, we also consulted Hannah Bartlett, a Christmas expert, trend researcher and founder of Jolly Festive, a leading resource for festive insights, ideas and inspiration.
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