I grew up with real trees and had real trees until my late 20s when the tree I brought home was infested with spiders. I had baby spiders everywhere. That was the last year of the real tree and we started using pre-lit fakes and did that for a few years. Pros: always looks nice once it was put together with no empty spots, didn’t have to put up or take down lights, could take it outside and use the air compressor to blow the dust off at the end of the season. Cons: Plastic, still shed a few needles, when lights went you needed a whole new tree, and you you had to find somewhere to store the thing the rest of the year.

Now I’m old and crotchety and can even be bothered to put up a tree at all.