Oh Christmas Trees

More than anything else, over the baking and cooking, the decorations, the treats and deserts, I absolutely love Christmas trees. My mom's family was in the Christmas tree business! My maternal grandfather was an electrician by trade but during the holidays the Sain Family was open for business for selling and delivering Christmas trees all over town. My mother, her four other siblings and her parents would drive up to their property in Beaver Creek, Utah cut down their trees, drive and ship them all the way back to Southern California. Their backyard was the Christmas tree lot and families from all over town would head to my grandma's house and pick out their tree. From the many, many stories, my mom said it was a lot of work, and hard work. My uncle would would prepare the tree and harness on top of the car/truck bed and my mom would ride in the truck bed and hold the tree down so it wouldn't fall off the car. Now that my mom is in her fifties, I'm sure she hates th maintenance of a real tree and maybe has a little trauma from her childhood but we take Christmas trees pretty seriously in our house . 

So question, do you buy a real or an artificial tree? Do you like a homemade decorated tree or are you mor eof a department store looking tree? Please share, I'd love the know!