Christmas tree - real or fake?

from w
Recent years I haven't bothered to fill the house with the fragrance and droppings of a real fir tree, or even a fake plastic one, but this year, with a five-year-old coming to stay, I will decorate a bit - I suppose. Buy a real tree or a fake plastic tree? I saw a pic in today's Age of a pine tree plantation and they sell a million trees! Okay, I am a tree hugger and I am passionate about all kinds of trees, except for these conical ones - though walking through a pine forest may be lovely. We decorated a branch of a gum tree one year but it did look a bit odd and scraggly.

Our youngest son planted about 4000 Caribbean pines on the hill slopes at Nukutatava but so far they are about 2 foot tall - and - I hope not damaged by yesterday's wild wind of the edge of a hurricane. His tree plantation isn't intended for Christmas trees but in ten years he may have some pocket-money.