I prefer a real tree if I happen to live in a place where they're readily available. When I lived in the northwest they were easy to get and I could cut my own, but in the southwest I have to pick from trees at a tree lot, most of which were cut down two weeks before Thanksgiving, and they can be a bit beat up and dry. They're still nice, but I like them fresh from the ground. They make some realy nice fake ones now but they don't have the smell unless you get artificial scent, but that often smells a bit perfume-like to me and not very authentic.