I have always loved a real tree. One of my favorite childhood memories is of my Daddy, siblings and I going into the woods to pick out a Christmas tree. (Yes. In the woods behind our house. Not the Christmas Tree Farm or Wal-Mart.) The tree was also not the famed White Pine, or Leyland Cypress, but a large, overbearing cedar tree. Non-symmetric, limbs going everywhere. It was the most beautiful tree known to man and we had to have it. So daddy chopped it down and back to the house we went. Now picture it. Our living room ceiling was 8 feet tall with wooden beam/rafters. Don’t you know that tree was waaaayyyy taller than that. So much so, that when we stood the tree up, we had to tie it around the rafters and the top of the tree was pointing back down towards the floor. Talk about a jacked up tree! However! It was our tree. Our REAL Christmas tree that we still talk about every year around this time. So as you guessed it, I am TEAM Real Tree. Fast forward to 2018 and my tradition hasn’t changed. Instead of going into the woods behind our house, our family makes a trip to Cooley Springs Tree Farm in Chesnee, South Carolina every Thanksgiving morning. We take our chain saw, cut it down and head back to the entrance where Mr. Shields is ready to shake the needles from the tree and drill a hole for the tree stand. He then stands it up against a pole that measures the height. Long gone are the days of a 10 foot, Charlie-Brown-on-crack-tree. Now they are more like 5-6 feet. With a perfect point for the tree topper and no “holes”. Afterwards, we head home and start the maddening process of decorating it. Lights are your friend. Preferably, a lot of lights. My 5 1/2 foot tree currently holds 2500 LED Christmas lights. It is probably a fire hazard and NASA is wondering “what that new glow is in South Carolina!” What about you? Are you Team Real or Team Fake?