It's always been a real tree. I love the pine smell and decorating a different shaped tree every year. Tall and skinny, short and fat, it makes it fun. The dropping needles don't really bother me and they smell great when you sweep them up. When I was young (a LONG time ago) my whole family would jump in the station wagon and go to this farm where we'd hay ride behind a tractor to the tree farm, pick our tree and cut it down ourselves - for about a buck a foot. ... I
said it was a long time ago.
