We have a fake tree (or usually several of them but I want to get the main one up). We had real trees when I was very little (I barely remember) but my cousin who is 4 years younger than me had a severe allergy to Christmas trees and a bunch of other stuff so then we switched to artificial. Even though we no longer see her at Christmas we have just stuck to artificial. One year I did buy my parents a real wreath (like made out of pine or whatever Christmas trees are!) They loved it. We kept taking it down and soaking it in the bathtub so it would last the whole season and it did! Made the whole house smell like Christmas!