The best tree skirts you can buy

• Tree skirts add a dash of color and style to your holiday decor while hiding that unsightly tree stand. To help you find the best tree skirt, we rounded up the best options for small and large trees and more.
• The Primode Holiday Images 50-Inch Tree Skirt is our top pick because it features classic Christmas colors and motifs, plus it's durable enough to last a lifetime.
• For more holiday decorating ideas, check out the best artificial Christmas trees you can buy.

The winter holidays really are the most wonderful time of the year. When else can you justify eating dozens of cookies, opening second and third bottles of wine, stringing lights around the roof of your house, and putting an 8-foot tree in the center of your living room? And in any home where a Christmas tree will be set up during the holidays, it's as essential to have a great tree skirt underneath the tree as it is to have a shining star up on the top.

Tree skirts are important for three primary reasons, which will be of differing levels of value to different people and which I'll discuss in no particular order. A tree skirt can help keep your home clean by catching the needles that fall from a genuine pine tree, and which will invariably end up spread all around the house if not properly caught and collected. A tree skirt's ability to keep the room/home cleaner is its primary purpose for many households. (Note that even artificial trees shed some, so from a cleanliness perspective, a tree skirt is a good idea even with a fake tree.)

Tree skirts also help to keep pets and kids away from the tree stand. This is all the more important with a real tree that has a water-filled stand. Skirts help prevent messes or damage to wood flooring or carpets caused by spilled water and also help reduce the risk of electric shock. Finally, as noted above, tree skirts are a lovely addition to any holiday room, anchoring the decorative tableau (and, ideally, laden with presents).

Choosing the right tree skirt should be a pretty simple affair. First, measure the space the skirt will occupy to determine the maximum size the area can accommodate. Next, think about how large a tree you are going to get (or already have) and then look for skirts with a diameter of approximately the same size as the tree's widest span. When in doubt, opt for a skirt that's slightly smaller than the tree's width, not larger. 

Finally, just pick a tree skirt you love based on how it looks and how it will look in the room. If you decorate lavishly, go ahead and choose an intricately patterned and colorful skirt. If your home holiday decor is more reserved, consider a solid-colored skirt or one with minimal flourishes.

Here are the best tree skirts you can buy:

• Best tree skirt overall: Primode Holiday Images 50-Inch Tree Skirt
• Best traditional tree skirt: Valery Madelyn 48-Inch Tree Skirt
• Best mini tree skirt: VHC Brands Burlap Mini Tree Skirt
• Best affordable tree skirt: Ivenf Christmas Tree Skirt
• Best large tree skirt: Kurt Adler Embroidered and Pleated 60-Inch Tree Skirt

Updated on 11/02/2018 by Steven John: Added a light-up tree skirt and updated pricing and formatting.

Updated on 10/18/2019 by Lisa Sabatini: Updated links, prices, and formatting. Replaced the best affordable tree skirt with new pick and removed out-of-stock light-up tree skirt.

The best tree skirt overall

The Primode Holiday Images 50-Inch Tree Skirt is big enough for trees up to 8 or 9 feet tall, and its red, green, and white wintry motifs make it look festive.

When my wife and I got our first Christmas tree a dozen or so years back, we also got just about the cheapest tree skirt known to history. It bunched up easily, it shed more fibers than the tree dropped needles, and it really just looked ... cheap. Still, we kept the damn thing for five or six years because it just seemed like such a hassle to replace it. Don't make that same mistake.

Instead, consider getting the Primode Holiday Images 50-Inch Tree Skirt. With it, your home may well be set for life — as far as Christmas tree skirts go, anyway.

At 50 inches across, this skirt is large enough for most trees yet it will still fit in most rooms. You can always fold a portion of your tree skirt to make it fit closer to a wall or into a corner. Its bright red background is warm and merry, while the green trees and white snowflakes stitched into the skirt add colorful cheer.

The skirt features a 5-inch center opening that should accommodate almost any trunk while still concealing the stand entirely. A pair of ties keep the skirt closed, and its weight and the quality of the fabric help it to lie flat without bunching or wrinkling.

This Primode tree skirt scores a four out of five stars when you average all of its ratings together. One customer says the skirt is "the perfect shade of red" for holiday decor, while another gushes: "The tree skirt is beautiful! I'm in love!"

An editor with BoomsBeat gave Primode tree skirts an impressive 9.1 out of 10 rating based on their quality. Primode skirts are also highly popular on Pinterest boards.

Pros: Lovely Christmas colors and designs, durable cotton/polyester blend, ideal size for most homes

Cons: Chemical odor when new requires time/and or washing to dispel

The best traditional tree skirt

The Valery Madelyn 48-inch Tree Skirt will look right at home in homes with a traditional style.

Some of the online product copy written about the Valery Madelyn 48-inch Tree Skirt refers to its look as a "classic baroque style." At first, I thought that description was a bit overwrought, but on closer consideration, I think they're spot on. The skirt looks rather demure from a distance, with a deep burgundy background and gray-gold ruffle that rather blend in with the greater tableau of a space, but seen up close, the surface is adorned with intricate swirling golden stitching and punctuated by silver sequins.

This tree skirt manages to be both regal and refined while still having just a touch of playful flash. In fact, the darker the room, the more the skirt will stand out, as Christmas light and/or a crackling fire make its gold and silver highlights sparkle.

At 48 inches in diameter, the Valery Madelyn Luxury Collection Gold and Burgundy Tree Skirt is large enough for most trees you're likely to install in the home or at a business. And with its quality fabrication and a set of Velcro straps holding it securely closed along the slit, the skirt is suitable for use in high traffic areas.

The Valery Madelyn Luxury Collection Gold and Burgundy Tree Skirt has a shining 4.7-star average rating on Amazon. A customer named Jessica T. said that it's the "most beautiful tree skirt [she has] ever seen," adding that it's "even more beautiful in person."

This skirt is a top seller from retailers all over the internet as well as with brick-and-mortar stores thanks to the confluence of elegant looks and a fair price.

Pros: Lovely subtle styling, plush velvet material, durable Velcro tabs

Cons: Will not match some interior design schemes

The best mini tree skirt

The charming VHC Brands Red Burlap Mini Tree Skirt is perfect for a tiny tree kept in the corner of an apartment or in a Christmas-obsessed kid's bedroom. 

The VHC Brands Burlap Mini Tree Skirt is big on charm and small on dimensions. The cloth skirt measures just 21 inches across, making it a perfect fit for a diminutive tree standing 3 or 4 feet tall. The company makes these mini skirts in a number of colors and patterns if you don't like the basic beige pictured above.

Whether you place a tiny artificial tree in the center of your holiday dinner table or you simply have a rather small tree as your primary Christmas tree, this skirt will be the perfect grace note to that pint-sized holiday pine.

The skirt is made from 100% cotton and can be machine-washed if needed (use cold water and a gentle cycle) and is durable enough to last for many years. It has four concentric rings gathered into handsome pleats and edged with fringe and adds depth to any space in which the skirt is displayed. Even used without an actual tree, this skirt makes a handsome decoration placed beneath a vase filled with flowers or under a platter laden with fine foods.

Also, as befitting a tree skirt that's less than half the size of most other options, its price tag is quite small.

The VHC Brands Burlap Mini Tree Skirt has a 4.1-star average rating as of the time of this writing. One customer calls it a "darling little tree skirt" that looks perfect atop her "hand-scraped hardwood floors," while another said it was the "perfect fit for a small table tree."

Pros: Bright color and handsome ruffles, perfect for small trees, affordable price point

Cons: Too small for most trees

See Also:

• The best dog muzzles you can buy
• The best artificial Christmas trees you can buy
• The best sofas and couches