6ft Christmas trees

For a standard, classic glow, 500 to 600 lights is the usual guide for a 6ft Christmas tree. Our 6ft pre-lit Christmas tree sits at the top of that range, with 600 warm white micro-LEDs woven through the branches, enough for an even glow from base to tip on a tree 130cm across. It has eight settings, from a slow twinkle to a steady light, controlled from a foot switch. If you are lighting the unlit 6ft tree yourself, stay within the same range. Go beyond it only if you want a brighter, more dramatic tree, because on a smaller shape extra strings tend to show as wire before they add light.

Yes, and in a room with a lower ceiling or limited floor space, it is usually the better choice. Under a ceiling of 2.3m or less, a 6ft tree leaves space for a topper where a seven-foot tree would have little room to spare. In a smaller living room, its 130cm spread leaves more of the floor free for the sofa and the route to it. Where the ceiling is a standard 2.4m, and the room has space to give, go up a size: our 7ft Christmas trees are the height our design director recommends for most homes. If you are unsure, mark out a 130cm and a 150cm circle on the floor and see which one the room can live with for a month.

Only the lights. The two share the same Nordmann Fir shape, the same 42 branches, the same 2,599 tips and the same 130cm spread, so they look identical until they are switched on. The pre-lit tree has 600 warm white micro-LEDs fitted through the branches, a foot switch and eight light settings, and weighs 9.6kg against 8.5kg for the unlit tree. Choose pre-lit to skip stringing lights altogether, which on a smaller tree with tightly spaced branches is the fiddliest job of the season. Choose the 6ft unlit Christmas tree if you already own lights you love, want coloured or larger bulbs, or like to change the look from one year to the next.

Around 2.1m is enough. Our 6ft trees stand 180cm tall, so a 2.1m ceiling leaves about 30cm above the top branch for a star or topper, and anything higher gives you more room still. That makes six feet the height that works under most cottage ceilings and in rooms with exposed beams, provided you place the tree where the ceiling is highest. Measure at the exact spot, not the centre of the room, because a beam or slope can take several centimetres away. If your ceiling is 2.4m or more and the floor allows, a 7ft tree will fill the height better.