The Mr. Christmas tree on Amazon
Alexa, light up my tree! Those are some giddy words that Amazon customers will be saying this year now that Amazon has updated the Alexa platform to be able to control a Christmas tree.
For a cool $299.00, you can buy a seven-foot-tall Mr. Christmas tree that is a “realistic-looking” artificial Douglas fir tree. It comes pre-lit with more than 400 low voltage, energy-saving RGB LED lights that you can command to turn on, on-demand, on a schedule, and even change color with its 13 different light functions. The tree itself is pretty simple to assemble and comes with a center pole that you attach branches to. The finished tree features 1,750 flame retardant tips and is sure to impress your friends and family.
You have to have Alexa in order for the tree to work, obviously. If you don’t already own the Echo Dot then you pick one up with your tree on Amazon. The tree with the famous dot is $334.00.
So far the reviews on Amazon (26 at the time of writing this article) are a mixed bag of delight over the whiz-bang tech features and ire for how “fake” the tree looks. It’s worth noting that reviews on Amazon must be purchase verified, meaning that the people writing the reviews actually bought the tree and have experience with it. But also, not everyone who buys a product and loves it (or hates it) will feel compelled to write that out for the world to see. Make sure to take the variety of reactions to this tree with a grain of salt.
As cool as a gadgety tree that is lit up on command might be, my family will be sticking to the old fashioned cut-it-yourself Griswold style Christmas as our house. The tree may be flawed here or there but it’s real, smells amazing, and my kids won’t fight over bossing Alexa around.
