Our family uses a fake one so that we don't have to worry about buying another one every year and the cleanup required by the falling pine needles. It is a great family tradition where we assemble the tree every year and we have lots of fun putting it together. I believe our fake tree is actually older than me since we have always gone with a fake tree. So, maybe 20+ years. That is a lot of money saved from just buying 1 fake tree.