Appalled neighbours and delighted cats: testing a forest of artificial Christmas trees ... in October

Ten trees, one fearless rescue cat; gloriously silly baubles; and our big Christmas gift guide – packed with presents for everyone on your list

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In the world according to TikTok, the true meaning of Christmas is cats hurling themselves at 8ft trees to a Mariah Carey soundtrack. This particular trend always made me wonder what I’d been doing wrong. Every cat I’d ever lived with, notably my dear departed Iggy, was indifferent to my Christmas tree.

Maybe Iggy just wasn’t a tree kind of guy, despite (or perhaps because of) his face being all over my tree decorations. Or maybe I just needed to up my tree game. After testing the best artificial Christmas trees against all manner of metrics, including feline appeal, I’ve concluded it’s probably the latter.

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