Beat Cop

Net Christmas lights are pre-constructed grids of string lights designed to drape quickly and evenly over bushes, hedges, shrubs, tree trunks, and railings, eliminating the hours it normally takes to individually wrap string lights around foliage. I spent three weekends testing net lights across eight different bushes, two hedge rows, and a 12-foot fence in … Read more

After January 2nd every year, I watch the same thing happen: families drag their artificial Christmas tree across the garage floor in a torn cardboard box, muttering about how the box only lasted two seasons. I have been testing christmas tree storage bags for the past five years, and the right bag changes everything. Your … Read more

I still remember the first time I watched a friend’s artificial Christmas tree quietly spin in her living room. Suddenly every ornament got its moment in the spotlight, and I understood why rotating stands became one of the most wished-for holiday gadgets of the season. A rotating Christmas tree stand is a motorized base that … Read more

I have been decorating inverted Christmas trees in my own living room for the last three seasons, and I still get a kick out of watching guests walk in and stop mid-sentence. An upside-down Christmas tree flips the traditional shape so the wide base points toward the ceiling and the narrow tip points at the … Read more

Yes, you can still buy fiber optic Christmas trees in , and they have quietly come back into style. I have been reviewing holiday décor for our team since the early fiber optic days, and this season I personally tested 10 of the most popular models to see which ones actually live up to the … Read more

The best Christmas tree toppers do more than crown the tree. They set the whole room’s mood, pull the eye upward, and decide whether your tree looks finished or accidental. After assembling twelve options across two seasons on a 7.5 ft tree (and watching one tumble over the cat), I learned a lot more than … Read more

Every year around mid-November, my wife pulls the storage bins out of the attic and asks the same question: do we have enough lights? Some years the answer is yes, and some years we are unwrapping a tangle of dead strands from -or-earlier. That is why our team spent four weeks testing ten of the … Read more

A Christmas tree skirt is a circular fabric piece placed at the base of your tree that hides the stand, catches stray pine needles on a live tree, and creates a clean backdrop for gifts. Most are made of faux fur, velvet, knit, quilted cotton, or sequined fabric, and they come in diameters from 24 … Read more

After two holiday seasons of testing tree collars in our own living rooms (and one chaotic December with a golden retriever named Biscuit), we learned fast that the best Christmas tree collars do far more than hide a stand. They anchor the whole room, contain curious pets, and turn an ordinary fir into the centerpiece … Read more

If your existing masonry fireplace is losing most of its heat up the chimney, you are not alone. Traditional open fireplaces waste roughly 80 to 90 percent of the energy they generate, which is why the best fireplace inserts have become one of the smartest upgrades a homeowner can make. A modern insert slides into … Read more