It's the most wonderful time of the year where you can start to dig out the festive decorations and get your house ready for Christmas.
There is nothing better than the smell of a real Christmas tree however, buying a real tree in Ireland would usually set you back around €60.
Aldi are currently selling Christmas trees that are over 6 foot in height for the shockingly low price of just €24.99 - Dublin Live took a gamble and tried it out. Here's how they got on....
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I usually buy my Christmas tree off the road around Dublin, however as we drove around this weekend looking to pick up our tree, there didn't seem to be any on sale yet. It's still November so it makes sense that real trees might not be available right now - but we like to kick off Christmas a little early in our house.
We were starting to think we might have to wait another week before we could go ahead with our Christmas plans, but then saw Aldi in Terenure had trees on sale. And I was stunned when I saw they were less then €25 and over 6 foot in height.
We would usually pay around €60 for a tree in Dublin, so with the price being so low, I must admit I was sceptical. Surely they can't be as good as your usual Christmas tree? But after spending our morning driving around we were tired and said we would take the chance.
The trees are all wrapped up in netting so you can't see what you're getting - it's totally pot luck. So when we arrived home and opened out the tree I was very nervous.
The first thing I noticed was that it was actually much fuller than I expected. However, for some reason the bottom branches had all been trimmed - I'm not sure why - which meant that the bottom half was a little skinnier than the top half.
If I'm being honest the shape looked a little strange so we decided to clip a few of the top branches to even it out. It's still not perfect but I have to say for €24.99 it was hard to complain.
We went decorating that evening and once the lights were on and the baubles were in full display, I don't think you could tell the difference from trees we have bought in the past.
So would I recommend buying your tree from Aldi? I feel a little guilty taking the business away from a local supplier so maybe next year we would try and stick to the man on the side of the road (although the Aldi trees are Irish grown which is great.)
If you're on a budget then it really is hard to beat Aldi.
Aldi say these trees are also 'non-shed' so they should last a bit longer - ideal for those of us who put up our tree in November. The real test will be if our tree stays fresh for the whole of December. I'll keep you posted.
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