The Balsam Hill Vermont White Spruce is so pretty, but pretty spendy--but you can get a great deal this Black Friday. The Vermont White Spruce artificial Christmas tree is the best fake you can buy, and that's not just our opinion. Last month, we rented a studio, secured 10 of the most popular artificial Christmas trees on the market, got 10 volunteers together to put the trees together and fluff them, then invited three interior designers to blind-judge them. The Vermont White Spruce won the competition, getting very close to a perfect score. This is the best fake Christmas tree you can buy, based on the most thorough test we've seen.

WIRED brought 10 of the most popular artificial Christmas trees into a studio and got three interior designers to pick the best through blind judging. For extra trimming, we checked in on how those trees fared once they were taken home and decorated. Shopping for an artificial Christmas tree can be overwhelming, especially when you're doing it online. You'll find yourself staring at product photos, wondering: How realistic does it look? Will it shed all over my living room? Can you see daylight through the branches? Are the branches strong enough to hold that lopsided homemade macaroni ornament you've hung on your tree since 2004? We got tired of guessing, so we did a little experiment. We brought 10 of the most popular artificial trees from three top brands (Balsam Hill, King of Christmas, and National Tree Company) and hauled them to a photo studio in Kansas.

We brought 10 of the most popular artificial Christmas trees into a studio, had volunteers assemble them, then got three interior designers to pick the best through blind judging. All products featured on WIRED are independently selected by our editors. However, we may receive compensation from retailers and/or from purchases of products through these links. You can spend hours scrolling through lists of the best artificial Christmas trees and still end up wondering what to buy. How real does it look? Are the branches strong enough to hold that lopsided homemade macaroni ornament you've hung on your tree since 2004? We decided to settle the debate once and for all by bringing the best-selling artificial trees from three leading brands into a studio for a blind-judged contest. We got 10 trees from Balsam Hill, King of Christmas, and National Tree Company, then found 10 assemblers to put the trees together and fluff them.

Downtown Redwood City is home to cloud-storage company Box, virtual reality start-up AltspaceVR, music identification app Shazam and artificial Christmas tree-maker Balsam Hill. "It's definitely weird for us to be here," said Thomas Harman, the 40-year-old founder and chief executive of the holiday decoration company. But rather than feel like his company doesn't belong in a neighborhood known for its software businesses and venture capital firms, Harman has embraced his 11-year-old company's tech hub home. He describes his business as having one foot planted in the slow-moving seasonal decorations world (where products are planned 18 months in advance) and another in Silicon Valley (where thinking-outside-the-box is often thought to be the only way to think). "If you compare us to people doing artificial intelligence and machine learning, or Google and Facebook, we're obviously not doing anything earth-shattering like that," Harman said. "But we like to think we're pushing the envelope when it comes to holiday decorations."