Artificial Christmas tree recalls and fire safety

Which artificial Christmas trees has the CPSC recalled?

Three trees were recalled in the ten years to November 2026, and each is in the first three rows of the table. The last three rows are older Balsam Hill and Seasonal Specialties notices, kept because those brands are on our pages. In every case the remedy was to stop using the part and take the refund or the replacement.

Which Christmas tree light controllers and light strings were recalled?

Two recalls of lighting that people put on trees fall inside the same ten years. Both are fire or burn hazards in the part that plugs into the wall, not in the branches. If you use a wireless switch or a connectable mini string on your tree, check the model numbers against these notices.

Has a brand on our pages been recalled?

We searched the CPSC database by title and by maker for each brand that appears in our comparisons. The table gives the result on November 14, 2026. A brand with no recall found has simply not been recalled in that database; it is not a quality score.

Hykolity, ClouFairy, Goplus and Joiedomi also appear in our listings and we have not searched them yet, so treat those four as unchecked. We will add them here when they are.

How do you check a tree for a recall?

Check before you plug a tree in, and again each December. It takes about five minutes.

• Find the brand and model number on the tree's box, tag or the cord's label. The product page on the seller's site often has it too.
• Search the CPSC recall list at cpsc.gov/Recalls for the brand and for words such as tree, pre-lit and light controller.
• If your model is listed, follow the notice: usually stop using the part, then take the refund or the free replacement. Do not wait for the season to end.
• If you find nothing, that is not a guarantee. Keep the receipt and the model number so you can act when a notice appears.

Are fake Christmas trees safe?

Yes, an artificial tree is safe when you buy one with a testing mark on its lights, put it away from heat and switch it off when you are out or asleep. The risk comes from the lights and the electrical parts, not from the branches.

The two sets of fire figures below show where the trouble starts. Trees fitted with a controller or an adapter are where the three recalls above took place, so the plug and the cord deserve the attention you would give any heater.

Are artificial Christmas trees a fire hazard?

They can be, but the fires that fire departments report are rare and mostly electrical. The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) counts an average of 143 home fires a year in 2020 to 2024 that started with a Christmas tree, with an estimated 7 civilian deaths and 13 injuries a year. The figures do not separate artificial from natural trees, so no one can say from this source which kind burns more often.

The NFPA report for 2016 to 2020 breaks the cause down further, and its figures are the clearest picture of why a tree catches fire.

Are pre-lit Christmas trees a fire hazard?

A pre-lit tree puts the wiring inside the branches, so the electrical share of the NFPA numbers is the part that concerns it. That does not mean pre-lit trees are the cause: the NFPA figure covers lights on any tree, strung by hand or pre-wired. What the CPSC recalls show is that on pre-lit trees the weak points were the controller, the adapter and the fuse.

Buy a pre-lit tree whose lights carry a UL, ETL or CSA mark, keep the manufacturer's instructions for how many sets of lights you may connect, and never join more than three sets of incandescent lights end to end. Our pre-lit tree comparison ranks lights per foot, and the methodology page explains how we read the listings.

What's the most common cause of Christmas tree fires in homes?

Electrical problems. The NFPA found that electrical distribution or lighting equipment was involved in 44 percent of home Christmas tree fires in 2016 to 2020, with electrical failure or malfunction behind 34 percent, and a heat source too close to the tree behind another 20 percent.

Three quarters of those fires happened in December or January. The 2020 to 2024 NFPA page adds that nearly one in four, 24 percent, were started by lamps or bulbs, 11 percent by candles, and 48 percent began in the living room. The NFPA fact sheet says to keep a tree at least 3 ft from any heat source.

Are artificial Christmas trees non-flammable?

No. An artificial tree is made of plastic over a steel frame and it can burn. The CPSC puts it plainly: a Fire Resistant label on a tree does not mean the tree will not catch fire, only that it is more resistant to catching fire.

A fire-resistant label is a reason to prefer one tree over another, not a reason to relax about candles, heaters or damaged cords.

Are most artificial Christmas trees flame retardant?

Most of the listings we read say so. 42 of the 75 listings write fire resistant or flame retardant, which is 56 percent, and the other 33 say nothing about it. A listing that is silent may still carry a label on the tree, so check the tag when the box arrives.

The CPSC's advice is to look for the Fire Resistant label when you buy an artificial tree. Each review's Safety marks score records whether the listing writes it.

Is it safe to leave a fake Christmas tree on all night?

No. Both the NFPA and the CPSC advise turning the lights off before you leave home or go to bed, and the NFPA's own wording is to always do so. A timer that shuts the lights off at a set hour is a convenient way to follow the rule.

Most Christmas tree fires start with the electrical parts, and a tree left lit while no one is awake is the case where a small fault grows unseen.

Are all artificial Christmas trees plastic?

Plastic dominates, but we cannot say that every tree is plastic. The tips are PVC, PE or a mix, set on a steel pole and frame. In the life-cycle study that the artificial tree makers' association commissioned, the 6.5 ft tree modeled was mostly PVC, with polypropylene branches on steel, and it weighed 4.93 kg with its stand.

Of the 75 listings we read, 51 write PVC and 13 write PE. Which plastic a tree uses changes how real it looks; see our PE or PVC page. The wire coating of some holiday lights is a different matter: California's toxics office says PVC-coated wire on some lights can expose you to lead and phthalates, so wash your hands after handling them and prefer lights labeled lead-free.

How to fix artificial Christmas tree lights safely

Unplug the tree first. For a string that went dark, check the fuse in the plug and replace it only with the same rating, and replace a dead bulb with the same type. If any wire is frayed or pinched, or the plug looks melted, stop using the string: the U.S. Fire Administration advises throwing away light strands with frayed or pinched wires, not repairing them.

For why a pre-lit tree stops lighting section by section, see the pre-lit tree guide. If the tree is one of the recalled models, a repair is not the answer: follow the recall notice.

Which laboratory mark should a tree's lights carry?

They tell you that an independent laboratory tested the lights and certified them to a safety standard. UL, Intertek (the ETL mark) and CSA are all laboratories recognized by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and none is better than another. For Christmas lights the standard is UL 588.

Under UL 588, a 2015 federal rule makes a light string a substantial product hazard if it lacks the right wire size, a fuse or other overcurrent protection, or strain relief on the cord. Since July 16, 2018, trees taller than 30 in and shorter than 12 ft must also pass the fire tests of UL 2358, according to the laboratory Intertek, which also moved the limit on connected strings from a count of strings to a total wattage.

• UL, ETL and CSA are the three marks to look for on the plug or tag.
• Of the 75 listings we read, 14 write UL, and none writes ETL, CSA, UL 588 or UL 2358. The marks may be on the tree's tag instead.
• A missing mark on a page is a reason to look at the tag, not proof the lights are unsafe.

Where to go next when you are choosing a tree

Pick a tree by your room first, then by density. Our best artificial Christmas trees guide compares the models with six scores each, and the glossary defines the safety words used here. If you are choosing between a lit tree and one you light yourself, compare the 9 ft trees without lights with the 9 ft pre-lit trees.

Sources

• CPSC recall database, searched November 14, 2026 at saferproducts.gov and the notices linked in the tables above.
• NFPA, Winter holidays fire safety, and the NFPA report Christmas Tree Fires, December 2022.
• NFPA, Christmas Tree Safety tip sheet.
• CPSC, Happy Holidays Start with Safety and Put Safety at the Top of Your List.
• U.S. Fire Administration, Holiday Fire Safety.
• Federal Register, May 4, 2015, CPSC rule on seasonal and decorative lighting products.
• Intertek, UL 588 update.
• OSHA, Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratory program and its current list.
• California OEHHA, Holiday Lights fact sheet, November 2018.
• American Christmas Tree Association, 2018 life-cycle study, paid for by the artificial tree makers' association.