The best Christmas tree stands: Keep your festive fir upright and stable

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Christmas is just around the corner, and it’s time to start planning. The task that should take pride of place at the top of your to-do list? The purchase of a Christmas tree stand – after all, bagging the most beautiful Christmas tree is pointless if you’ve got nothing to display it with.

Our top tips? Bigger is better when it comes to water buckets. A larger water reservoir will mean less topping up of water levels, and will make it easier to do so, too.

Make sure you consider the size of your tree, too. Although most stands will accommodate a reasonably wide range of sizes and, if you’ve got a weakness for larger trees, bear in mind the stand doesn’t just have to support your super-sized spruce, but all the decorations you’ll be loading it with too.

With larger trees, a well-supported base is essential – ideally, one that is lower to the ground rather than raised up in the air, and it’s best to choose one with four screws, not three, for the extra grip these will provide.

We’re not only huge fans of Christmas but big fans of recycling, and we repot our Christmas trees every year. This not only means we have trees in a wide range of shapes and sizes to help test our tree stands, but that – if we do say so ourselves – we’re basically experts when it comes to the world of Christmas tree stands. Yes, it’s a pretty niche area of expertise, but one we’re particularly proud of at this time of year.

In a nutshell, our testing involved forensic analysis of screws, stands and water buckets, as well as a critical appraisal of aesthetic aspects, such as colour schemes, which is precisely why we’re confident these are the Christmas tree stands that should be topping your Christmas wish list this year.