Up until this year I was adamant about having a real tree.  I felt ok about it, because the local grower (who also is one of our local coop farmers) plants a certain amount of new saplings in place of one tree cut down.  That sounds ok to me.   But this year with being busy I finally broke down and bought a fake one.  Not only is it fake, but it is a iridenscent silver tinsel tree (4 feet high).  It's perfectly perched on my vintage heywood/wakefield side table.  For 29.99 from BJ's wholesale club I got it and a 2 foot high tree with it.  Both pre-lit. It took me 10 minutes to put up and I don't have green pine needles stuck in between the wood floor boards in my living room.