Why I’m still obsessed with flocked Christmas trees
Flocked Christmas trees might seem like a trend but after twelve years of absolutely loving my flocked trees, I don’t know if I’ll ever go back to a traditional green tree.
I first started seeing flocked Christmas trees here and there more than a decade ago and I was instantly smitten. At the time there weren’t a whole lot of flocked tree options and I already had a perfectly good artificial Christmas tree, so I bought flocking powder and flocked my own Christmas tree.
From there, I was hooked.
Ever since my Christmas decor has been all flocked, all the time. Christmas trees, wreaths, garland – it all has to be snowy white.
My flocked garland and tree from a previous year.
To be honest, at first I thought flocked trees was going to be a quickly passing trend. When I was growing up in the 1980s and 90s, I really don’t remember ever seeing flocked Christmas trees.
It turns out they aren’t a new thing though. Flocked trees first became popular in the 50s and 60s, but they fell out of favor soon after. It’s entirely possible that flocked trees will eventually go out of style again, but I’m not too worried about that. I’ve always been someone who loves what I love – even if nobody else likes it.
A big thanks to King of Christmas for providing me a free Christmas tree to review. All opinions and content in this post are my own. This post also contains affiliate links which means if you make a purchase after clicking a link I will earn a small commission but it won’t cost you a penny more. Click here to see my full disclosure policy.
When King of Christmas offered to send me one of their Christmas trees, I thought maybe this was the perfect time to break out of a rut and try something new. I looked at all their beautiful trees and really thought about choosing a green tree. After more than ten years of flocking, it felt like maybe it was time to change things up.
But even though I felt like I should do something different and choose a green tree, I just couldn’t do it! I love my flocked Christmas trees way too much!
Here’s my new tree all set up. It doesn’t have any decorations yet and for that matter, it doesn’t even have lights yet. But look how beautiful it looks anyway!
I chose their 7.5′ Queen Flock tree and it looks gorgeous in person. It’s nice and full with plenty of snowy white flocking. And it looks surprisingly realistic. The individual branches and needles have a realistic shape and look as well as the overall shape of the tree.
For the past several years I’ve used a more classic artificial Christmas tree. And while it was beautiful, it definitely had a very defined cone shape that isn’t really seen in nature. I love that this tree has more of a natural sweep with branches of all different sizes.
Want more details on that DIY Christmas tree collar? It’s a super cheap DIY using cardboard boxes, cardstock, and washi tape and you can find the full Christmas tree collar tutorial here.
How realistic does flocking actually look?
If you’ve never seen a flocked tree up close, you might be surprised by how much it actually looks like snow. This is nothing like the white ‘spray snow’ people put on windows. Flocking is made of a combination of fibers, adhesive, and flame retardant (for safety) and up close it looks amazing.
Look how realistic that snowy texture is!
According to this article, flocked trees tend to be the most popular in places that don’t get a lot of snow including the southeast and the west coast. I was surprised to read that at first, but it really does make sense. When you don’t have to deal with snow all the time, it still feels magical and we’re all trying to capture a bit of magic at Christmastime.
Why I love Flocked Trees
So why exactly am I so devoted to flocked Christmas trees? I mean, yes, they look beautiful, but what exactly is the big draw?
Flocked trees look fuller. The flocking literally makes a tree fuller because there is more material coating the branches. But it also just gives an appearance of fullness because there are more layers of various colors and textures.
Flocked trees need less decorations. Because they already look fuller, it doesn’t take as many ornaments and decorations to make a flocked tree look beautifully decorated.
Flocked trees make ornaments pop more. Because a flocked tree is mostly white, ornaments are able to shine a lot more. Brightly colored ornaments really pop against the white, neutrals have more presence, and dark ornaments that would disappear on a darker tree can actually be seen.
Flocked trees look great in photos. I almost cringe to even add this because I hate to encourage doing anything just for the photos. Living your real life the way you want and being in the moment is 1000x more important than having pretty pictures. But also I realize that photos do matter to a lot of people – especially around Christmas when lots of people are trying to take great family photos in front of their tree. And flocked trees just look so much brighter and nicer in photos.
And the biggest reason I love a flocked tree:
Flocking can hide all kinds of flaws. This tree actually has really nice, realistic needles, but I’ve had plenty of trees in the past that did not have nice needles or were a little sparse and a bit of flocking made them look so much better.
I realize it may sound crazy to say that fake snow can make a fake Christmas tree look more realistic. Clearly it doesn’t snow inside and a flocked tree will never truly look 100% realistic. But somehow it works. Realistic looking fake snow just looks way better than plasticy fake branches.
Now I can’t wait to decorate my new Christmas tree!
If you’re looking for some flocked tree decorating ideas, check out this post for tons of inspiration. Decorating a flocked Christmas tree is mostly just like decorating any other Christmas tree, but there are so many more fun ways to make your decorations really pop.
I’d love for you to pin this post on Pinterest!
