5ft Real Christmas Trees
Free UK delivery on the date you choose. British grown, cut to order.
A 5ft Christmas tree is the smallest tree that still reads as a proper floor-standing Christmas tree. Below this you are into table-top territory.
It is the right answer for a flat, a small living room, a low ceiling, or anyone who wants a real tree without giving up half the room to it.
Who a 5ft tree is for
Flats and smaller houses, where four feet of floor space is a genuine sacrifice.
Rooms with low ceilings. Take your ceiling height and remove a foot for the stand and the star. If that leaves you under 6ft of usable height, a 5ft tree is your tree.
Anyone who does not want to stand on a chair. You can top a 5ft tree from the floor, decorate the whole thing without leaning, and carry it in on your own.
Anyone buying a second tree, for a bedroom, a hallway or a child's room.
A well decorated 5ft tree beats a cramped 7ft one every time. This is not a compromise size, it is the correct size for a lot of homes.
How wide is a 5ft Christmas tree?
About 3ft to 3ft 6in across at the base.
A tree is roughly two thirds as wide as it is tall, so a 5ft tree wants about three and a half feet of clear floor. That is a manageable footprint in almost any room, which is much of the appeal.
Still measure the width, and leave a few inches on each side so the branches are not crushed against a wall.
How we measure a 5ft tree
From the base of the trunk to the leader, the vertical shoot at the top where the star sits. We do not include the stand or the topper, so it will stand taller than 5ft once it is up.
Real or artificial at 5ft?
Most 5ft trees sold are artificial, and the assumption is that plastic must be the greener choice. It is not.
An artificial tree is PVC and steel, shipped a long way, and it cannot be recycled. You would need to reuse one for roughly ten years before it matched the environmental cost of buying a real tree each year, and most households replace theirs long before that.
A real 5ft tree spent years growing, absorbing carbon and giving cover to wildlife, and a new sapling went in when it was cut. At the end of Christmas it composts.
It also smells like Christmas, which no artificial tree has ever managed.
If you already own an artificial tree, keep using it. Throwing it out early helps nobody.
Which 5ft tree should you buy?
5ft Nordmann Fir
The non-drop tree. Thick, waxy needles that hold moisture, so the tree loses water slowly and the needles stay on the branch. Watered, it holds four to five weeks.
Soft, blunt needles and strong, well-spaced branches that carry heavy baubles without bowing. In a small flat, where a dropped needle ends up everywhere, the low mess is worth a lot.
Almost no scent. That is the trade for keeping its needles.
5ft Norway Spruce
The traditional tree, and the one that smells of Christmas. In a small room that pine scent is powerful, which is either the reason to buy it or the reason not to.
It drops sooner. Put it up in mid December, keep it away from the radiator, and water it every day.
It is also cheaper, because it grows to 5ft in a fraction of the time a Nordmann takes.
Pot grown trees
If 5ft is still too big, a pot grown tree runs about 2ft to 3ft. It is alive, roots and all, and it can go back outside after Christmas and return next year. See our pot grown tree care guide.
What a 5ft tree needs
Around 500 lights. Work on 100 per foot. Small trees get badly under-lit because people assume they need less, and a sparse 5ft tree looks thin.
Work the lights from the trunk outwards, not wrapped round the outside, so the light sits inside the tree.
A stand with a proper reservoir. Even a 5ft tree can drink a litre or more on its first day indoors, and if the reservoir runs dry the trunk seals over and the tree is finished. Our Christmas tree stand has a wide, deep reservoir made for real trees.
Looking after a 5ft real tree
Saw an inch off the bottom of the trunk before it goes in the stand, straight across, right before it goes into water. Sap seals the cut end within hours of harvest, and without a fresh cut the tree cannot drink at all.
Get it into water and check the water every single day.
Keep it away from radiators. In a small flat this matters more, not less, because there is nowhere for the heat to go. A cool corner will buy you weeks.
More in our guides to keeping your tree fresh and stopping needle drop.
Delivery
Free, anywhere on the UK mainland, on the date you choose. We cut and pack your tree the working day before it travels, so it arrives fresh.
Netted, a 5ft tree is easy to carry up a flight of stairs on your own. Cut the netting in the room where it will stand.
Deliveries run 8am to 6pm and you do not need to be in. More on Christmas tree delivery.
5ft Christmas tree FAQs
Is a 5ft tree too small for a living room?
No, if the room is small or the ceiling is low. A well decorated 5ft tree looks far better than a squeezed-in bigger one.
How wide is a 5ft Christmas tree?
About 3ft to 3ft 6in at the base.
How many lights for a 5ft tree?
About 500. Work on 100 per foot.
What ceiling height do I need?
Around 6ft of usable height, so almost any room works.
Which 5ft tree lasts longest?
The Nordmann Fir. Watered, it holds four to five weeks.
Not sure? See our Christmas tree size guide, or compare the 4ft, 6ft and 7ft trees.